Three poll watchers who observed the primary election in Laramie County say the federal monitors who entered the polls behaved courteously and innocuously.
The U.S. Department of Justice monitors who entered multiple polling places during the Aug. 18 primary election have evoked controversy and, as of two weeks ago, a Wyoming Attorney General opinion concluding their presence was unlawful.
Entering the Tuesday general election, the DOJ monitors are barred from coming within 100 yards of the polls, and reportedly have agreed to keep that distance.
They’re also barred from interviewing anyone who doesn’t want to be interviewed, and the sheriff can get involved if they’re disruptive, according to a statement the Laramie County Clerk’s Office gave after its review of the AG opinion.
Three primary election poll watchers who represented the Laramie County Republican Party on Aug. 18 told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that they watched the federal monitors that day.
“They were very nice, they were professional, courteous, respectful,” said Celeste Simmons, who told Cowboy State Daily she watched the Storey Gym poll station from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
She said two young men in white shirts and black slacks entered, spoke with a clerk’s staffer, took the staffer’s direction to the poll watchers’ table and sat mildly.
“No aggression. I don’t know where that came from, but those gentlemen weren’t like that,” said Simmons, countering Gov. Mark Gordon’s secondhand account that the monitors had been aggressive.
Simmons said she couldn’t see a gun on either. She said one flashed a badge to a clerk’s staffer, and otherwise they behaved innocuously and stayed about 15 minutes.
She asked them who they were, and they said they work for the DOJ Civil Rights Division, Simmons said.
“I asked them, ‘Do you like working for Harmeet Dhillon?’” she recalled, referencing the department’s assistant attorney general.
A monitor answered, “yes, we like to follow the Constitution and the law,” Simmons recalled.
'This Is Stupid'
Simmons said she overheard a clerk’s staffer call someone — apparently a superior — about the monitors. One monitor approached a staffer with a question, she said.
Simmons told Cowboy State Daily she’s disappointed the monitors’ presence has been cast as disruptive and become a controversy.
“This is stupid,” she said.
John Frank, who represented the Laramie County GOP as a poll watcher at North Christian Church from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., said he watched two men and, later, a woman arrive to monitor election proceedings.
“Quite uneventful,” said Frank, adding that he didn’t think anyone but the election workers knew they were there.
Frank described the monitors’ attire the same way Simmons had.
He said he didn’t see them interview anyone, but he added a caveat: He was only observing the voting area, not the check-in area.
The monitors might have been more active in the check-in area, but Frank didn’t see it, he said.
They were there for about 45 minutes, he said.
“They came in, watched, and left.”
Chris Self, a third GOP poll watcher stationed at the Davis Romero station said he observed from 11-3.
The monitors entered and sat at his poll watching table, said Self. He added that his shift ended and he left while the monitors were still there.
The ‘Poorly Managed Exercise’
Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee has cast the operation as poorly managed.
She said after the election that the DOJ election monitors converged on the operation the day of the primary with essentially no notice.
“They did not offer their credential until I requested they do so,” she said in August.
State law allows one narrow category of election observer: Poll watchers selected by political parties.
Beyond that, clerks have the freedom and the duty to keep unnecessary people out of the process and to maintain order, Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz’s opinion concluded last month.
Lee said that after she learned about the monitors, she spoke with a DOJ official in Washington who told her the decision to deploy monitors to Wyoming was made on short notice, “and that an email had been sent to me, but it may have gone to the wrong address.”
The DOJ official also notified the secretary of state, public records show.
Neither Frank nor Simmons saw monitors interview voters, according to their accounts.
But that was their plan, Lee said in her August statement.
“I was informed the monitors were sent to assess compliance with federal civil-rights and voting-rights laws,” she said. “To do this, they intended to interview voters. We do not allow interviews to be conducted in polling places, so this was denied.”
Wyoming law says people can’t campaign within 100 yards of a polling place, or solicit petition signatures or canvass voters.
But the law contains an exception for the news media: Reporters can take exit surveys close to the polls.
Lee has not alleged that the monitors were violent or loud, but she has lamented their reported lack of notice to her office and entrance into a tightly regulated space.
“This was a poorly managed exercise and one that showed complete disregard for our state laws and administration of our elections,” she said.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
