A comment made by a Wyoming state legislator has a current and former county clerk upset, accusing him of spreading misinformation.
While testifying on his bill to give more power to poll watchers last week, state Rep. Ken Pendergraft, R-Sheridan, told the House Education Committee that Park County Clerk Colleen Renner “prematurely” destroyed ballots from the 2020 election before a group of people from her county could inspect and hand count them in 2022.
“If you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to hide,” Pendergraft said.
But Renner was fully allowed to destroy the ballots when she did in early December 2022, as state archive law only requires county clerks to hold on to ballots up to two years after an election.
Former Park County Clerk Kelly Jensen is deeply upset about Pendergraft’s remarks, which she believes maligned Renner and further fuels distrust in Wyoming elections. Jensen said Pendergraft needs to apologize.
“All elected officials should be held to trustworthy and ethical behavior,” Jensen said. “It doesn’t put a stop to false allegations about elections to accuse the county clerk of a false narrative.”
Renner said she was particularly surprised to hear the comments when considering the bill Pendergraft was testifying on pertained to poll watchers and workers, not the destruction of ballots.
“My first reaction was I was totally shocked,” Renner said. “He just threw me under the bus.”
Secretary of State Chuck Gray, sitting behind Pendergraft when he made the comments, did nothing to push back, question or support the lawmaker’s remarks. Gray wasn’t in office when the ballots were destroyed.
Renner said lawmakers should be careful before making unverified comments at the Legislature.
“People should check their facts before spewing things like that,” she said. “It misinforms people.”
But Pendergraft told Cowboy State Daily he stands behind his remarks.
“The very fact they were resistant, the very fact that they fought them on it, the very fact the ballots were destroyed — all that shows is it raises the suspicion and feeds the fire,” he said. “If you want to quell the fire some way, put the truth out.”
What Happened?
Since spring 2022, a group of Park County residents had been pushing for hand-count elections and to recount by hand the results of the 2020 election to verify that the election machines used could be trusted.
Both Wyoming Attorney General Bridget Hill and then-Secretary of State Ed Buchanan advised the Park County commissioners against providing this access.
“Once we received the AG’s opinion, the ballots were not to be hand counted,” Park County Commissioner Chair Dossie Overfield told Cowboy State Daily. “That’s the answer.”
The 2020 ballots were eventually destroyed without prior notice, two days before a group of hand-count supporters had been scheduled to meet with Overfield about the matter.
Overfield reiterated that the ballots were fully allowed to be destroyed under state law.
“I think it’s important to have the facts,” she said.
Hill said state law prohibits public inspection of the ballots.
“The Wyoming Election Code specifically provides how ballots are to be counted, and there is no statutory authority to allow a recount or audit of ballots in the certified 2020 election,” Hill wrote. “Any sort of counting (hand counting or otherwise) of the 2020 election year ballots at this point in time would be outside the provisions for how ballots are counted and certified.”
Hill further said in her opinion that “ballots and similar documents may not be provided to outside persons or groups” that wish to hand count the ballots.
“Nothing in the Election Code or the Secretary’s rules indicates that auditing can be performed by someone other than the (county) clerk or the canvassing board,” she wrote.
Despite the AG’s opinion, Pendergraft told Cowboy State Daily that Renner and the commissioners should have ignored the attorney general’s opinion and cooperated with the hand counting group. Reluctance to cooperate, he argued, only creates more suspicion.
“Make it transparent, shine a light on,” Pendergraft said. “Instead, they got resistance, pushback. All that does is breach suspicion and animosity.”
Silence
On Friday, Jensen brought her concerns about Pendergraft’s comments to the attention of Wyoming House leadership and her Representative, Nina Webber, R-Cody.
Webber, who’s politically connected to the group of people that were pushing for the hand count, did not respond to Jensen’s concerns beyond advising her on how to file an official complaint with the Legislative Service Office. When contacted by Cowboy State Daily on Monday, Webber declined to comment about Jensen’s complaint.
Only Minority Floor Leader Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, responded directly to Jensen’s concerns, saying he found them concerning.
Rep. J.D. Williams, R-Lusk, who prompted Pendergraft’s comments in the first place while asking him a question as a member of the committee, said what happened was unfortunate, but all too common in an age where election misinformation is rife throughout society.
“I think most of the population, they know their clerks better than whatever a legislator says about their clerk,” Williams said. “Most people see those statements for what they are as just political theater.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
