The Wyoming Attorney General’s Office filed a petition Friday to remove the Weston County clerk from office.
Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock has made headlines since November 2024, when she reportedly allowed faulty ballots to mingle with proper ballots in the general election, skewing two uncontested races and raising questions about whether her post-election audit was done in good faith.
“Prior to submitting her post-election audit,” says the attorney general’s petition to remove her, “Hadlock was informed that the anomalous undervote reported in the House District One race was likely due to ballot errors.”
Still, the petition adds, she submitted a post-election audit to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office, showing no errors affecting any of the 75 sample ballots audited.
That same day someone emailed her to confirm that faulty ballots mixed into the race had produced the inaccurate results.
“Hadlock acknowledged the error but did not withdraw or correct her audit at that time,” says the petition. She later agreed to a hand count, and the election results were correct by three days after the election, Nov. 8, 2024.
The petition says that by Nov. 9, however, Hadlock “still had not withdrawn or corrected” the audit.
She addressed those issues Nov. 12, by submitting a corrected audit — this time showing 21 errors affecting the 75 ballots, all owing to the faulty ballots that had been mixed into the election, the document adds.
Fifteen Months Of This
Some Weston County residents filed complaints asking Gov. Mark Gordon to remove Hadlock from office.
She’d done a poor job but didn’t show the misconduct or malfeasance to vault the state to that level, Gordon countered. Gordon did not consider the questionable post-election audit Hadlock had filed, because the people qualified to bring the governor’s investigation complaints didn’t raise that point, his office later told lawmakers.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray had raised that complaint, but he wasn’t a qualified elector of Weston County, so he couldn’t ask for the governor’s investigation under the relevant law, Gordon’s office noted last year.
So Weston County residents filed another batch of complaints, this time including the post-election audit concern.
Gordon announced Jan. 7 that the broader body of evidence was sufficient to recommend Hadlock for removal and turned the question over to Attorney General Keith Kautz.
Kautz, along with four attorneys working in his office, filed a petition Friday in Weston County District Court calling for Hadlock to be removed from her post.
Now, Go
These kinds of cases move quickly.
From the day Hadlock is served – perhaps early next week – she’ll have 20 days to answer the summons, then the court has to hold trial on the matter with or without a jury; within five-to-30 days from then.
Meanwhile, Hadlock is also facing a criminal investigation for not showing up to a Casper-based legislative meeting in September, to which a legislative committee had subpoenaed her. Punishable by up to six months in jail and $100 in fines, the criminal case is a separate matter from Kautz’ civil request for removal.
More About This
Mixing faulty ballots in with proper ones botched Weston County’s count of House Speaker Chip Neiman’s uncontested race, and another county commission race that was also uncontested.
The unofficial results showed 166 votes for Neiman and 1,289 undervotes, or ballots left unmarked in his race.
Gray called Hadlock to discuss the results, the petition says.
Hadlock reportedly insisted the results were accurate.
This controversy has now impacted three branches of government.
Citing the incident with Hadlock, Gray has urged lawmakers to craft more election and election scrutiny laws.
The Management Audit Committee formed a legislative subcommittee to investigate her actions. Hadlock’s attorney Ryan Semerad has called this a criminal-style inquiry and deviation from the proper legislative powers, while the committee chair has said the subcommittee formed in the name of gaining information for crafting laws.
After Hadlock did not appear for the meeting to which she was subpoenaed – citing scheduling conflicts legislative staffers reportedly knew about before she was summoned – the Natrona County Sheriff’s Office and Natrona County District Attorney’s Office undertook the criminal case against her.
Casper Circuit Court Judge Kevin Taheri declined Jan. 21 to dismiss the criminal case against her, saying questions remain for a jury to answer.
Semerad did not immediately respond Friday to text and voicemail requests for comment.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
