A botched election in Weston County last fall has renewed calls among some Wyomingites to ditch voting machines and count ballots by hand.
Lawmakers and residents have discussed hand counting for years, but the faulty 2024 election in which House Speaker Chip Neiman received an erroneous slew of undervotes has now amplified that discussion.
Members of a legislative subcommittee on the Weston County election heard hours of testimony on the topic Monday.
Many said they were in support of reverting to hand counting for all elections, but some warned of the logistical challenges, whether it be training, finding enough people to participate, and the possibility that it would delay election results.
Joey Correnti, a Carbon County Republican who serves on the county’s central committee and is a prominent political podcaster, told Cowboy State Daily he’s not opposed to hand counts.
But any such law change raises many questions, he said.
“What is the requirement for the counting teams? Is there compensation? Should there be compensation? How fast can they actually crank them out?” Correnti told Cowboy State Daily on Friday. “All that stuff applies.”
Correnti said he’d support an opt-in approach requiring clerks to allow hand counting when certain safeguarding rules had been fulfilled. He declined to define those rules, saying that’s in the purview of the legislature, which can also let the Secretary of State and county clerks set rules where appropriate.
“I’m against forcing it to be one way or another and potentially leading us to a situation where, depending on who shows up, we may not be able to count the ballots,” said Correnti.
Governor Watching And Waiting
Any proposal that the Wyoming Legislature passes in 2026 would require Gov. Mark Gordon’s signature, or at least no veto.
The governor told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday that he wouldn’t comment on any proposal until it reaches his desk.
“That conversation is going to happen in the Legislature," Gordon said. "There is a financial burden that that brings, which I hope the Legislature, if they decide to do hand counting, can do."
The 2020 presidential election raised many questions about elections, the governor said. But he added that during his lifetime, he’s always been confident in results statewide.
“There are obviously variations between clerks and how they administer [elections],” he said. “But you know what I'm going to say is that my job is to execute the laws that the legislature passes.”
Recent History
State lawmakers introduced multiple bills this past session, which Secretary of State Chuck Gray highlighted during Monday’s meeting. None of them passed.
One, sponsored by Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, would have required a hand recount for all races decided by 1% of the vote or less, or 2% in less in counites where federal, state, and legislative races cover multiple counties.
Another, sponsored by Rep. Scott Smith, R-Lingle, was more direct – it would have eliminated machines entirely from the process. Wyoming has used machines in elections since 1957, but President Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was rigged, alongside the issues in Weston County last year, have sparked continued interest from residents that the machines cannot be trusted, and that hand counting should replace them.
Park County was the first jurisdiction to perform hand counting on a considerable scale — county commissioners there said in May 2022 that they would consider allowing a hand recount of more than 17,000 ballots cast in the presidential election.
In October 2024, a hand count election test consisting of 1,100 ballots in Gillette revealed that it would take hundreds of volunteers, cost between about $360,000 and $1.3 million, and require changes to state law to allow for longer counting periods.
Support For Hand Counting
One of the most prominent supporters of hand counting is Gray, who said Monday he supported all efforts in the last legislative session, including one to ban machines.
“I have always advocated for hand counts and hand audits of ballots to make our elections more secure and transparent,” he wrote in a follow-up text to Cowboy State Daily Friday. “We are focused on ensuring the fulfillment of President Trump’s vision for election integrity here in Wyoming, and this includes full support for President Trump's vision for election integrity.”
Many who spoke at the election subcommittee meeting agreed. That included Dawn Pfeifle of Crook County, who said hand counting would have revealed voter intent in Speaker Chip Neiman’s race, preventing the issue.
Sen. Bob Ide, R-Casper, particularly appreciated Pfeifle’s comments that using voting machines may be convenient, but causes further distrust in elections.
“That is so true, we need to do the hard work, count these ballots by hand,” Ide said.
… But Not Everyone
Logistical hurdles remain if Wyoming is to switch to a full hand count system, multiple people said Monday.
That included Correnti, who spoke at Monday’s meeting. He said that while hand counting could work, it’s unclear whether counties will have enough people immediately to conduct them for elections.
Hand counting supporters may have had large groups of people attend town halls and training, but that’s different than actually working an election, he said. Correnti added he’s seen it personally in Carbon County and eastern Sweetwater County.
“I have hundreds of people signing up to be election judges every year, and I maybe get 35 of them to actually show up to the training, get certified and be available on election day to do those jobs,” Correnti said.
Julie Freese, Fremont County’s Clerk, said that changing the process is not like flipping a light switch. She said Monday that more than 17,000 voters in her county, across eight school districts and numerous special districts create complications.
Switching to hand counting would also require election officials to try and determine voter intent from various marks on the ballot, she said. She talked with one official recently who interpreted a circle of one ballot oval as picking that candidate or item. But Freese said that an X through the oval suggested to her that voter did not want to choose that candidate of initiative.
“Our statute also says we are not supposed to guess what the voter is thinking,” Freese said.
Marguerite Herman, a former Democratic candidate for Cheyenne-area state Senate District 8, said that more human counting could lead to issues, and delays.
Legislators should conduct an audit to see how well ballot machines reduce errors in the process, she said.
“The voting machines we’ve used in Laramie County would have caught the errors, or avoided the errors initially [in Weston County],” Herman said.
Could Something Pass?
Momentum in the last couple of legislative sessions indicates that there could be movement in 2026, despite it being a budget session.
Wyoming law requires two-thirds of the House and Senate to vote to introduce a bill during budget years.
Correnti said that since it is an election year, lawmakers may be more inclined to present election integrity legislation due to an oblique intent: campaigning on the topic and on the way others voted on the bill.
But he added if Gordon is not seeking re-election, he doesn’t incur any political debt by vetoing anything that crosses his desk.
“This is why they run gun bills during budget sessions, because they know it's an election year, and it increases the likelihood of something passing based on legislators wanting to be reelected,” Correnti said. “Same thing with election integrity.”
‘Thankful It Happened’
Neiman spoke at length Monday about his re-election, and how having more than 1,000 votes cast for him lost in initial results has created great election integrity concerns for him. Voting, and knowing that our vote has been counted, is the “most treasured” thing Americans have.
“Quite frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I am thankful that this happened … because it obviously exposes the problems in our system, that we can already see, our vote can disappear,” Neiman said.
As House Speaker, he’ll prioritize election integrity, he said.
Cindy Smart, of Sweetwater County, told the committee she has helped lead hand-count clinics where hundreds of people have packed the local American Legion building, in support.
Sen. Dan Laursen, R-Powell, replied that he has heard as many as 85% of residents in his county, polled at various locations, trust hand counting over machines.
Smart said anecdotally, probably 40 to 50% of people would prefer the former.
Steve Bohnel can be reached at steve@cowboystatedaily.com.
