With the Wyoming Legislature’s 2025 General Session completed, I am proud that the majority of our conservative election integrity reform agenda we had proposed to the Legislature in 2024 has passed both the Wyoming House and the Wyoming Senate, and now awaits action by the governor.
These include our common-sense efforts to require proof of citizenship to vote, ban Zuck Bucks and ranked choice voting in Wyoming, institute heightened security and maintenance of Wyoming’s voter rolls, and ban foreign funding of elections in the Cowboy State.
The ban on foreign funding of elections was signed into law last week and is an important update to the Election Code.
The #1 priority of our conservative election integrity reform agenda, which awaits the governor’s signature, is House Bill 156. HB156 would require proof of United States citizenship and Wyoming residency to vote in Wyoming, as well as impose a durational residency requirement to vote.
The passage of HB 156 is a landmark bill, and represents almost two years of our administration’s efforts to strengthen Wyoming’s voter registration statutes and prevent illegal aliens from voting in Wyoming elections.
Only U.S. citizens, and only Wyomingites, should be voting in Wyoming elections. Period.
One of the key roles of the Secretary of State is to be the chief election official for the state of Wyoming. Since I entered the Secretary of State’s office in 2023, a priority of our administration has been requiring proof of citizenship for registering to vote.
This is a common sense measure that over 90% of Americans support.
President Trump continues to do great work to advance proof of citizenship for registering to vote and this has been a key priority of the administration. Last year, on April 12, 2024, President Trump announced with Speaker Mike Johnson their efforts to pass the SAVE Act in the Congress.
This bill would require similar proof of citizenship requirements to vote at the federal level. While the bill passed the House, the radical Left refused to take up this common-sense election integrity measure in the Senate.
The House is working to pass the SAVE Act again in the 2025 session and hopefully it reaches President Trump’s desk for his signature.
In Wyoming, we’ve also been working to advance these measures at the state level.
In the fall of 2023, our office promulgated administrative rules to require proof of Wyoming residency to vote and provide for safeguards to stop illegal immigrants from registering to vote in Wyoming. Unfortunately, our rulemaking was vetoed by Governor Mark Gordon.
As I said last year, I continue to find Governor Gordon’s veto of our proposed rules troubling, and I disagree with the reasoning behind his veto.
There was clear statutory authority for the rules and these election integrity measures are needed. Gordon Gordon’s veto also showed how out of touch he is with the Make America Great Again movement.
Despite the governor’s veto of our rules, our office went back to the drawing board, and began to work with conservative lawmakers in the Wyoming Legislature to bring this pivotal election integrity reform to the finish line in what became House Bill 156, sponsored by Representative John Bear.
This session, the Wyoming Legislature spoke loud and clear in their agreement with our position that only citizens, and only Wyomingites, should vote, overwhelmingly passing House Bill 156 on a third reading vote of 51-8 in the House, and 26-4 in the Senate.
With the passage of this pivotal legislation, Wyoming is very close to becoming a leader in the nation, to require proof of citizenship to vote in all Wyoming elections.
Not all of our election integrity agenda got across the finish line, and there is still more work to do to make Wyoming’s elections better, and more secure, than ever before.
Although the Wyoming Senate did not advance many of our election integrity reform agenda efforts, including our bill to ban ballot drop boxes and our bills to require photo ID for voter ID, I will continue to advocate for these conservative election integrity measures, and work with the Wyoming Legislature to see to it that our elections become safer, and more secure, than ever before.
HB156, proof of citizenship and proof of residency for registering to vote, is a key election integrity measure that represents the #1 priority of our administration this session and is sitting on the governor’s desk awaiting his signature.
Yesterday, at a Republican Governors Association meeting at the White House, President Trump once again reiterated that proof of citizenship for registering to vote is one of the key election integrity priorities of his administration. Governor Mark Gordon should listen to President Trump and sign HB156 into law.
Chuck Gray was elected Wyoming Secretary of State in 2022. As Secretary of State, he serves as the Chief Election Officer for the State of Wyoming. Prior to his election to statewide office, Gray served three terms in the Wyoming House of Representatives.
