Weston County elections officials are investigating how more than 1,100 votes were not counted in a state House race on Election Day.
The miscount reported state Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, having received just 15% of the votes cast for him in the House District 1 race even though he was running unopposed. Nearly all of the other 85% were marked as not voting in that race.
The mistake was materially inconsequential as far as determining a winner of Neiman’s race, but it raises serious questions about how the county counts its ballots, drawing concern and criticism from locals residents Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray.
Weston County has become in some ways the epicenter of the Wyoming political world in recent weeks.
Weston County commissioners drew statewide attention in October after their move to declare two new state Legislature seats on their own volition. Now, many are upset about the voting irregularities that occurred in the House race there and a pair of local races during last Tuesday’s general election.
What Happened?
The unofficial result reported Neiman as only receiving 166 votes, with 1,289 undervotes, meaning that more than seven times as many voters chose not to vote in his race than cast a vote for him.
If this were correct, it would have marked a serious drop off in support for Neiman, who received 645 votes in the 2024 primary election, 1,074 in the 2022 general election and 1,812 in the 2020 primary election when he last ran against an opponent.
After a hand-counted recount Friday, the number of votes cast for Neiman increased from 166 to 1,268 and the number of write-ins increased from 8 to 29. The undervotes went from the 1,289 first reported by County Clerk Becky Hadlock on election night to 166 after the recount.
Another miscount occurred in the county commissioner race, according to the Newcastle News Letter Journal, with a difference of 62 votes reported between two candidates running opposed.
It was determined that Hadlock mistakenly mixed in ballots containing errors that were printed before the election with correct ballots on Election Day, a mistake that she has taken responsibility for.
The incorrect ballots were counted as undervotes in the Neiman race, which were then recounted by hand Friday to get the correct totals.
Hadlock said the incorrect ballots did not in any way affect the counting of ballots that were printed correctly.
“The Weston County clerk used incorrect ballots that she had printed,” Gray told Cowboy State Daily. “The printing of the ballots and the distribution of the proper ballots to the polling places is a duty of the county clerks, which was done incorrectly by Clerk Hadlock.”
Weston County Commissioner Nathan Todd told Cowboy State Daily that although these mistakes were inconsequential in determining the final results of the election, it doesn’t take away from their seriousness.
“It’s serious, I won’t discount that,” Todd said. “It was a real unfortunate mistake.”
Hadlock told Cowboy State Daily that people shouldn't lose any trust in their elections over what happened in Weston County.
"They can trust the election, they can trust me, they can trust the machines," Hadlock said. "It was a huge oversight on my part."
Hadlock said she has no plans to resign over the mistake.
Late Night Call From Gray
Gray said as soon as he saw the counting anomaly last Tuesday night, he attempted to contact Hadlock. When she didn’t answer her phone, Gray then called Weston County Sheriff Bryan Colvard and asked him to locate the county clerk, which he did at home.
“It is very important that county clerks be reachable on election night,” Gray said.
Gray said it wasn’t until 11:52 p.m. on election night that Hadlock called him back and denied there being any issues.
During the Weston commissioners meeting Thursday, Hadlock confirmed she received the late night call from Gray, at which time she said she didn’t think there were any issues with the count.
At the meeting, Weston County GOP Chair Kari Drost revealed she also received a call from Gray around 11:50 p.m. on Election Night but was already asleep.
“It is so clear there is a problem here,” Drost said. “For the clerk to say she doesn’t think there’s a problem is nonsense.”
Hadlock has since accepted responsibility for the error.
Still, Gray said his office has been in contact with the Wyoming Attorney General’s office about Hadlock’s actions, seeking a possible investigation.
“It is important that we have accountability,” Gray said. “Election integrity is the No. 1 priority of our administration.”
Drost said during the commissioner meeting there has been a general lack of transparency from Hadlock’s office.
In the lead up to the general election, Drost said Hadlock was also uncooperative in getting vote tabulators tested in the way that the Wyoming Republican Party desired, calling it a failure of “epic proportions.”
“While there may not be maliciousness, there is clearly incompetence that happened here,” Drost said.
Hadlock admitted Thursday that the counting mistake was her fault and not a result of any counting error made by the ES&S voting machines themselves.
“Nothing malicious was done on my part or ES&S’ part,” she said. “The machines did everything they were supposed to do.”
Hadlock said she also apologized to Neiman for the miscount and found him very understanding about the matter.
At the end of the commission meeting Thursday, all of the commissioners expressed support for Hadlock and said they felt her mistake was unintended.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
