CHEYENNE — The Wyoming House of Representatives rejected six of seven election reform bills considered on Monday, as a coalition of other Republicans and Democrats denied the supermajority needed to introduce legislation during a budget session.
The measures covered paper ballots, ballot drop boxes, ballot harvesting, random hand-count audits, poll watcher expansion, and independent candidate requirements.
Election integrity has been a cornerstone issue for the Freedom Caucus since it won control of the House after the 2024 election.
But the budget session requires two-thirds approval to introduce non-budget bills, effectively handing veto power to the same bloc of Republicans and Democrats that the caucus has been battling since taking power.
The result was a procession of bills that enjoyed some support but couldn't cross the finish line.
Five of the six defeated measures drew between 36 and 39 yes votes. In a general session requiring only a simple majority, all would have advanced to committee.
Caucus Reacts
Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R-Cody, who chairs the Wyoming Freedom Caucus (WYFC), was blunt in her assessment.
"It's ironic that the same liberal Republicans and Democrats who shed crocodile tears over the WYFC stopping bad committee bills in 2024 are now killing conservative committee bills," she told Cowboy State Daily. "Turns out they never really cared about the bills being committee bills — they're just leftists."
A statement posted online by the WYFC following the votes blamed “RINOs and Dems” for the defeats.
Some of the sharpest opposition on the floor came from Rep. Lee Filer, R-Cheyenne, who spoke against three of the seven election bills, raising practical objections each time.
On the ballot drop box ban, Filer questioned whether the bill accounted for military members overseas "in different areas of the world where it's not handled by the United States Postal Service."
On ballot harvesting, Filer warned that a carve-out for senior care facility employees could backfire: "That opens it up for other people to possibly even bring in ballots to a senior center for them to deliver down."
His sharpest floor remarks targeted the poll watcher expansion bill.
Filer pointed to specific statutory language in the bill: "It says a poll watcher shall not be prevented from observing all activities and processes at the polling places. So that means a poll watcher can literally get in the booth with you."
After the session, Filer elaborated to Cowboy State Daily, saying the bill would "allow a poll watcher to actually stand right there in the booth and watch over you as you vote, which is one of the most private things (as) citizens that we do."
"I don't think we need the intimidation," Filer said. "I don't think it's anybody's business who I vote for, what I vote for, or anything like that."
Asked whether he was surprised that only one election bill survived, Filer said he was "very surprised," but added that each bill contained provisions that proved problematic by possibly opening the door to "commit fraud or intimidate somebody to vote a certain way."
"The people in Wyoming don't need this," Filer said. "They need to be able to go vote, know it's just fine, and they don't need anybody standing over their back."
Rep. JD Williams, R-Cheyenne, joined Filer in opposing the ballot harvesting ban, questioning what happens when a care facility employee exceeds the bill's five-ballot cap: "If that said employee brings six ballots, who decides whose ballot isn't counted?"
One Survivor
The sole election bill to clear the threshold was House Bill 52, which would allow hand-counting of ballots during recounts as a verification layer on top of machine tabulation.
Rep. Jeremy Haroldson, R-Wheatland, pitched it differently than his colleagues pitched their bills — less about fixing a broken system and more about adding a tool.
"All this bill does is say, 'Hey, we are going to give another mechanism for a hand count option on top of our machines,'" Haroldson told the chamber. "It preserves our machines, gives us a hand-count option on top of it."
Haroldson noted the bill had already passed the House 51-9 during the 2025 general session before dying in the Senate, and that he'd developed it with county clerks and the Clerks Association. Nobody spoke against it.
Bills Presented
Rep. Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne, argued in favor of a bill requiring pen-and-paper ballots, insisting that “hand-marked ballots are the gold standard for voting in election integrity" and are "inherently resistant to remote hacking."
Three narrower election bills passed on the consent list earlier in the day without individual debate: HB 84, penalizing falsification of election documents; HB 85, establishing post-election audit procedures, which passed unanimously; and HB 86, addressing removal of county officers for election code violations.
The pattern suggested House members had an appetite for measures that punish fraud and strengthen accountability — but not for bills that restrict or change how voters cast their ballots.
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
