Secretary of State Chuck Gray is calling for an elected county official in Wyoming to be removed from office.
On Monday, Gray filed a request that Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock be forced out of her post because of mistakes she made during the 2024 general election, which he believes amounts to “misconduct and malfeasance” and “gross incompetence and even willful neglect.”
Hadlock did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Weston County Attorney Michael Stulken would not confirm or deny to Cowboy State that his office has investigated this issue, saying he “doesn’t feel comfortable” answering that question.
Gray personally hand-delivered his request to the offices of the state attorney general and governor, saying quick action is needed.
Gov. Mark Gordon told Cowboy State Daily that he’ll consider the request, but that he won’t be pressured by Gray into anything.
What’s It About?
The mistakes related to a miscount in last year’s general election that showed House Speaker Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, as receiving just 15% of the votes cast for him even though he was running unopposed.
Nearly all of the other 85% of the ballots in his district were marked as not voting in the race. It was determined that Hadlock mistakenly mixed in ballots containing errors that were printed before the election with correct ballots on Election Day.
At the time, Hadlock took responsibility for the mistake but told Cowboy State Daily shortly after she had no plans to resign because of it.
The crux of Gray’s request for removal isn’t necessarily the mistakes Hadlock made, but the way she handled the post-election audit in the days immediately following the election. In that audit submitted the day after the election, Hadlock submitted an audit report showing “no issues” for each ballot audited in the election. This audit report requires a sample size of ballots to be audited.
Gray communicated the anomalous results to Hadlock the night of the election, which she initially denied as being wrong. In his request for removal, Gray said this audit should have shown that 21 of 75 ballots had a discrepancy.
Hadlock ended up submitting a second post-election audit, which identified the 21 ballots with a discrepancy.
Gray believes Hadlock either didn’t actually perform an audit or saw the errors and falsely asserted that none had been found.
“Either way, the submission of Clerk Hadlock’s post-election audit, the first submission of the 2024 general election, is clearly false,” Gray said. “I believe the standard of misconduct and malfeasance of office has clearly been met, which should subject her to removal proceedings.”
A willful violation of the election code by an official constitutes removal from office and a felony charge carrying up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. It’s also a felony to file with the secretary of state false information.
In his request for removal, Gray also critiqued the way Hadlock tested her voting machines in the lead up to the election, which he also said was illegal.
After a wide-ranging press conference held in the state Capitol Rotunda on Monday, Gray hand delivered the election code violation referral and request for removal to the governor and attorney general’s offices, which was also sent to Stulken on the request. Gray has no actual power of his own to remove Hadlock from office.
The only way county officers can be permanently removed from office is if a formal complaint is filed with the governor and they initiate an investigation through the Attorney General's office, the exact step Gray took Monday. If misconduct or malfeasance is determined by the attorney general, they can pursue removing the officer through a district court. While that proceeding is taking place, the governor can suspend a county officer.
A spokesperson for the governor said he is currently reviewing the matter and won’t comment on an ongoing investigation.
Gray isn’t the first person to try and remove Hadlock from office over what happened in the 2024 election. Last December, eight qualified electors filed a similar complaint with the governor’s office. The governor’s office confirmed to Cowboy State Daily they had started an investigation based on this complaint.
More Discontent
Gray also used a significant portion of the press conference to berate the governor and Senate leadership for not quickly signing into law or passing election legislation that he endorsed. He also criticized Senate leadership for allowing seven election bills to die without being heard on the Senate floor, which he called “a bloodbath.”
Gordon told Cowboy State Daily he believes in the separation of powers in government and commented that Gray likes to make a lot of noise.
“I thank the legislators for their work and respect the constitutional process they went through,” Gordon said. “The secretary took a lot of shots today at our legislators with assertions about why bills he personally wanted — and quite possibly helped draft — did not make it through both chambers. He likes to make a lot of noise. I believe in the separation of powers — there are good reasons for our three branches of government.
Gray specifically called out the governor for not already passing bills currently sitting on his desk. The governor has up to 15 days to act on a bill that arrives on his desk in the last three days of the legislative session.
“The dither and delay is really disturbing on these issues,” Gray said.
Gordon said he isn’t pressured by Gray’s comments.
“I was elected by an overwhelming majority to serve the people of Wyoming as their Chief Executive,” he said. “I will continue to take the time necessary to carefully deliberate over legislation that is sent to my desk to determine if it is in our best interest here in Wyoming — whether it is constitutional or discriminatory or creates centralized power or is too costly — before I act on it.
“I don’t plan to react to the secretary’s headline-grabbing comments about arbitrary timelines.”
Conversely, Gray heaped praise on the House, which passed all of the bills he supported with overwhelming majorities. A majority of members in the House are members of or ideologically aligned with the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.
Gray also celebrated the fact that six of his 10 election priorities passed the Legislature. So far however, only three of the election bills Gray endorsed have been passed into law by the governor, while another five are currently sitting on his desk.
Gray said the bills that failed will continue to be addressed in the upcoming interim session. The first meeting for the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee that typically hears these bills is May 5-6 in Lander.
Contact Leo Wolfson at leo@cowboystatedaily.com
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
