There was some unexpected debate on Thursday in the Wyoming House over a bill that would require proof of United States citizenship to register to vote in Wyoming.
The House refused to consider an amendment that state Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, tried adding to the bill on Thursday, to make it much more expansive by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship from all people attempting to vote in Wyoming.
“Why would the Freedom Caucus try and kill my amendment that actually works to maintain the integrity of our elections?” Yin told Cowboy State Daily. “Do they actually care about election security or only political theater?”
The Freedom Caucus and sponsor of House Bill 157, Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, have consistently pounded an election integrity drum, expressing discontent with the security of Wyoming’s elections and the need to enshrine more restrictions on people attempting to vote.
What Would It Have Done?
Yin’s amendment would have clarified that the U.S. citizenship requirement would also apply to people who were already registered to vote before the law went into effect. He promoted his amendment as providing an extra layer of election security.
“What’s good for the gander, people who haven’t registered, is good for the goose, the people who have registered,” Yin said.
This requirement would have likely been viewed as unpalatable for many registered voters in Wyoming who would have had to provide this documentation even though they’re already registered to vote.
Is It Germane?
After Yin presented his amendment, Rep. Chris Knapp, R-Gillette, called a meeting of the House rules committee to discuss whether the amendment was germane, which Knapp did not believe it was. An amendment must be relevant to the bill it’s being added to and considered within the same subject.
Bear argued it wasn’t relevant as his bill applies to new voter registrants. Although he said he agreed with the sentiment of Yin’s amendment, Bear still didn’t view his bill as the right place for the requirement.
“It’s not the right place for it in this particular bill, which is dealing with registration,” Bear said. “We’re trying to pull in people who are not registering (and) make this apply to them.”
Once a voter registers to vote in Wyoming, they don’t need to re-register until they fail to participate in an election. Therefore, if Bear’s bill passes into law, it would only affect new voter registrants.
After meeting for about 10 minutes, Rep. Lee Filer, R-Cheyenne, chair of the Committee of the Whole at the time, ruled Yin’s amendment to be not germane.
Yin then moved to overrule Filer.
He argued that since his amendment pertains to registered voters and the bill involves voter registration, it should be a fair addition.
“The amendment is clearly germane,” Yin said. “It’s logical that if you have a voter registration requirement and you create a new requirement that everyone is already registered, you want them to obey that requirement.”
Rep. Karlee Provenza, D-Laramie, agreed, saying that not accepting the amendment sets a very narrow precedent for amendments moving forward in the House.
“If we were talking about something else entirely, like maybe you get a license to hunt or not, and that registration, that would be completely different,” she said. “This is registration, regardless of whether it’s current or not. The germaneness I think is obvious.”
Rep. Ken Chestek, D-Laramie, also agreed, saying the title of the bill doesn’t limit it to forward-looking registration.
When a voice vote was taken, only about 15 members of the House stood in support of Yin’s amendment.
Yin said he doesn’t have a problem with narrow interpretations for amendments but asked for consistency on this moving forward.
“It does set the tone for what amendments we will start challenging or not challenging in the future,” he said.
HB 157 is a state-level version of the SAVE Act, legislation promoted by President-elect Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman that would require every American to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register or re-register to vote.
“This bill really would align us with that federal law that is being debated and being sponsored basically by the executive that’s coming into office now,” Bear said.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
