CHEYENNE — With the new law requiring proof of voter residency and citizenship, Wyoming citizens better start looking for their birth certificates or other documents that prove where they were born.
That is if they want to get on the voter registration list.
This requirement was made possible when Gov. Mark Gordon allowed House Bill 156 to become law without his signature despite his substantial misgivings about its legality.
The bill which easily passed the Legislature gives Secretary of State Chuck Gray authority to require voters to present documents to identify themselves as residents.
The law has a 30-day residence requirement which is in conflict with federal law and could trigger a lawsuit. The American Civil Liberties Union doesn’t like it.
Wyoming historically has a pretty clean record on elections.
Having worked with various country clerks over the years on elections, I have the highest regard of their efficiency and dedication.
I don’t think anyone wants to see illegal aliens voting in Wyoming elections although the possible is wholly remote.
But I also don’t believe that people want to disenfranchise residents who cannot comply with the new voter registration requirements.
I agree with what the Wyoming League of Women Voters said in a news release.
“It appears that the main effect of this legislation is to discourage eligible people from exercising their right to vote.”
Exactly. And why is that?
The harshest critics of the hard rightwing faction that sponsored the bill maintain that this is part of their movement to eventually allow only white Christian men to vote in elections — like in colonial days.
That may be going too far, but the new Wyoming law most surely will discourage a lot of eligible voters.
The law contains one method for people who cannot document their existence of domicile in the state. It was sponsored by Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, who chairs the corporations and elections committee.
The amendment says that if a person does not have the residency document specified by the rule of the secretary of state, the “proof of residency may be established by a signed attestation that the person is a bona fide residents of the state of Wyoming. The attestation shall be subject to verification by the county clerk and the secretary.”
That is a nice mollifying alternative but it is doubtful many people would go to all that trouble in order to vote.
We do not need to further discourage voters when the state has such a dismal record in voter turnout.
In the 2024 Wyoming primary election, only 27% of registered voters cast ballots. In the 2024 general election the turnout was 59.7% of registered voters, according to the secretary of state’s election website.
So, when the Freedom-Caucus-dominated Wyoming House proclaims it’s doing what voters wanted, it can’t rightfully claim it was acting on an electoral mandate.
The 2024 election was largely determined in the Republican primary where only 27% of the registered voters cast ballots.
It would seem logical that more robust efforts should be spent on voter registration — finding out why people aren’t voting rather than putting up more barriers to getting them to the polls.
Meanwhile I am looking for my birth certificate just in case. It’s in a file here somewhere.
Or my passport. Darn. It has expired
Okay, I can present my driver’s license. Nope. It doesn’t say where I was born.
The law goes into effect in July.
Contact Joan Barron at 307-632-2534 or jmbarron@bresnan.net
.
