If a bill banning ballot drop boxes passes into law as amended Wednesday, Wyoming voters would be allowed to deposit ballots through a slot in the wall at the courthouse, not unlike a safety deposit box or night depository at a bank.
The Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee unanimously passed the amendment to House Bill 131, a bill banning ballot drop boxes in Wyoming.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who has supported HB 131, said he has to study the amendment more before issuing an opinion on it.
Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, brought the amendment. He indicated the amendment would help the bill advance through his committee. The committee passed HB 131 on a 3-2 vote, with Boner and Sens. Cheri Steinmetz, R-Lingle, Dan Dockstader, R-Afton, voting for it and Sens. Cale Case, R-Lander, and Bill Landen, R-Casper, voting against it.
Boner believes having a slot to turn in ballots in the wall of a courthouse would be a more secure option than the ballot drop boxes, which although secured to the ground and under video surveillance, could still easily be harmed through a malicious act made by a member of the public.
Boner, who lives in a county with significant mineral production, said he still wants to provide voting access for workers of this industry to be able to cast a ballot outside of courthouse hours.
“It’s not an isolated structure, if you’re going to try and burn it down, you’re going to burn down the whole courthouse frankly,” Boner said. “It’s something far more secure than a drop box, but still allows for after-hours voting, which is important for a working-class community such as mine.”
The voting receptacles would only be allowed to be used for ballots and nothing else. They would also have to be under video surveillance and checked daily, including weekends and holidays. Counties would be allowed to use other government buildings besides courthouses to take the votes, but the county clerk would have to file an official memorandum of understanding to do so.
Rep. Chris Knapp, R-Gillette, the sponsor of HB 131, expressed concern that allowing this practice would prevent uniformity in the way elections are run across Wyoming, which is required by state law. The amendment would only provide counties with the option to offer this mode of voting.
In the 2024 election, seven counties offered ballot drop boxes outside their courthouses, an act Gray maintains is illegal.
Steinmetz also passed an amendment to the bill allowing counties to be reimbursed for the installation of these receptacles if federal funds are available through the state.
Voting Multiple Times
The committee also passed a bill on a 3-2 vote clarifying that people can’t vote in another state and Wyoming in the same election. The committee voted the same on this bill, with Case and Landen voting against and Boner, Steinmetz and Dockstader voting for it.
Many of those who spoke against the bill pointed out that it’s already illegal to vote twice or more in Wyoming in the same election, but some like Gray said state law on the matter is too ambiguous about voting in another state and Wyoming. Federal law however clearly states that it is illegal to vote in two states in the same election.
Rep. Marlene Brady, R-Green River, the sponsor of House Bill 154, told Cowboy State Daily she initiated the bill but it was Gray that wrote it.
Gray did not respond when asked how many election bills he or his staff drafted this session.
He spoke in support of HB 154 on Wednesday, calling it “a really good cleanup bill.”
“At best the statute is unclear,” he said. “We should make this clear on double voting.”
Voting twice in two different locations within Wyoming is illegal. If it takes place in Wyoming, it will be caught through the state’s voter registration system, but not until up to 30 days after someone votes in some instances.
Is It Happening?
Case questioned whether there have been any documented cases of people double voting in Wyoming and another state. Although a few supporters of the bill said it is, none were able to provide any specific examples.
Wyoming GOP Executive Director Kathy Russell said she’s received multiple calls from people with second homes saying they did this illegal act, but she did not collect their names or attempt to report them for criminal prosecution.
Sundance resident Sherri Davis, who spoke at the hearing, said the number of people who have or haven’t been caught doing this act in Wyoming is irrelevant. Increasing public confidence in elections, she said, should be the main concern.
“We’re just trying to have an election that people can trust,” she said. “Let’s just let the people feel safe about elections.”
Teton County Clerk Maureen Murphy said she’s never experienced this during her four years in office but said her predecessor who served for 27 years had one instance of this occurring, which was prosecuted.
Others like Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese said if double voting ever occurs within Wyoming, it’s usually because an elderly person has accidentally done so.
“I don’t want to hurt someone that has a forgetful mind,” Freese said.
Joey Correnti of Rural Wyoming Matters, a rural advocacy group, spoke in favor of the bill but agreed that people who unintentionally try to vote twice should be exempted from criminal prosecution.
“Our prisons are already full, we don’t need to be stacking it full of old people that forgot,” he said.
With this in mind, the committee passed an amendment to the bill removing someone who attempts to vote twice but doesn’t successfully do so.
The bill also states that a county sheriff shall investigate acts of false voting at the request of the secretary of state or a county clerk who has reasonable cause to believe that a person has illegally voted. Giving the power to the secretary of state to individually pursue action could theoretically leave a county clerk out of an investigation in their own county.
Former state legislator Marti Halverson spoke in favor of the bill and stated she doesn’t see the county clerks as an ally on election integrity based on a meeting she had with them in 2021.
“If there’s one thing clerks agree on, they have no interest in pursuing voter fraud,” she said.
An amendment requiring the secretary of state to work in conjunction with a county clerk to inform a local sheriff about false voting was rejected on a 3-2 vote.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
