CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee discussed 13 election- related bills Thursday that would address hot-button issues such as drop boxes, ballot harvesting and pen and paper ballots.
Prior to going through the bills, committee Co-chairman Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, questioned whether the bills should be discussed at all.
He noted his opposition to the bills and his belief that they would not have support in the next legislature, as similar bills had failed introduction in the past.
“I also believe that these bills do not have much chance of either actually being assigned to a committee or being considered by a committee or in the end being passed by the next legislature,” he said.
Many of the bills discussed Thursday were similar to bills proposed in the last legislative session by Wyoming Freedom Caucus members.
Case explained his belief that they would be assigned to the Rules Committee and never acted upon, effectively “putting them in a drawer.”
Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, agreed with Case and stated that he had made a similar point during the committee’s last meeting. Case also acknowledged how the upcoming change in the makeup of the Legislature could impact the support these bills would have. Of the 14 committee members on the Corporations Committee, eight are either Freedom Caucus members or aligned with the caucus.
However, six of the eight representatives, including Tony Locke, R-Casper; Paul Hoeft, R-Powell; Nina Webber, R-Cody; and Gary Brown, Steve Johnson and Ann Lucas, all R-Cheyenne, lost their primary elections.
Lucas responded to Case’s concerns by acknowledging that many members of the committee would not be returning to the Legislature but questioned why that mattered now.
“If our voices are counting for very little, if anything, then I question why we’re even here,” she said. “It’s very hard to sit for two days and then hear that we’re basically wasting our time.”
Both Lucas and Locke argued in favor of discussing the bills and giving the committee the chance to vote on them.
The topics of the bills included the following:
- Requiring pen and paper ballots;
- A prohibition on drop boxes and ballot harvesting;
- A random precinct hand count audit for election results;
- Requiring hand counting for recounts;
- Requiring poll watchers from each political party to be able to view polling locations;
- Requiring independent candidates to be unaffiliated;
- Updating acceptable identification needed to vote;
- Specifying that duly elected party officials are members of the county central committees of political parties;
- The recall of elected municipal offices;
- Changes to post-election audit procedures;
- Requiring all ballots to be hand counted;
- And changing the date for political party affiliation changes and declarations for a primary election.
Case noted that of those bills, eight failed introduction in the last legislative session.
Rep. Joe Webb, R-Lyman, pushed back against Case’s earlier comments and stated his belief that many of Wyoming’s residents are concerned about the integrity of elections, which is why the committee should consider the bills.
“If another legislature deems that these bills are not necessary, that is their responsibility, and that falls upon their shoulders and not ours,” he said.
Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who has championed and campaigned on many of these issues, gave his thoughts on why all of the proposed bills should move forward. In testimony to the committee, he noted that similar bills had advanced through this committee or others in previous years, and had already been debated at length.
Yin asked Gray’s thoughts on federal agents monitoring polling places in Cheyenne during the Aug. 18 primary.
“Do you think that we should have federal meddling into our elections on the state level?” Yin asked.
Gray’s response was simple.
“I believe the law should be followed,” he said. “And when you look at the law, federal observation is allowed.”
Maureen Murphy, the president of the Wyoming County Clerks Association and Teton County clerk, testified alongside Julie Freese, the Fremont County clerk; Mary Lankford, the former Sublette County clerk, and Malcolm Ervin, the Platte County clerk.
Murphy first touched on House Bill 95, which would require all ballots to be hand counted. She stressed that if the committee went in that direction, all the other bills would not be worth considering because the structure of Wyoming’s elections would change entirely.
“That blows up our process and the systems that we use in Wyoming,” she said. “So if you want to go that way, I’d go that way and leave the other bills behind, or focus on the other bills if you want to move forward with those.”
On the topic of drop boxes, Murphy explained that the decision on whether to have a drop box was made based on the preference of the clerk, and noted that she is one of seven who use them. She also requested clarifying language to ensure if a ballot was incorrectly placed somewhere else and spoiled, the voter would have the opportunity to cast another ballot.
Irvin suggested moving the drop boxes inside of the office to alleviate voter frustration and confusion.
Lankford addressed the ballot harvesting prohibition bill and explained that the main issue Wyoming voters face is delivering their ballots from nursing homes or long-term care facilities. She also noted that there is no evidence of ballot harvesting in Wyoming.
Gail Symons, the president of Civics 307, an organization that works to educate Wyoming residents about their rights, addressed all of the bills before the committee.
She highlighted how out of the 99 election bills proposed to the Legislature, only 22 had passed, meaning 77 had failed, and she deemed that a waste of legislative time.
Symons argued that election security concerns have been fueled by national narratives instead of evidence.
“The risk is that Wyoming keeps trying to fix a fraud problem the public record does not show while making worse the participation problems that the data clearly does show,” she said.
Marguerite Herman spoke on behalf of the League of Women Voters of Wyoming, and stated that many of the proposed bills were based on unsupported theories.
“There’s been no evidence that the current election statutes, rules and procedures allow fraud or mistakes,” she said.
Eight of the proposed bills were passed by the committee, with many receiving support from Freedom Caucus members or representatives who align with the caucus.
The bills that will advance to the 2027 general session are HB 83, requiring pen and paper ballots; HB 84 and 85, which put a prohibition on drop boxes and ballot harvesting; HB 87, requiring hand counting for recounts; HB 88, requiring poll watchers from each political party to be able to view polling locations; HB 89, requiring independent candidates to be unaffiliated; HB 90, updating acceptable identification needed to vote, and HB 91, specifying that duly elected party officials are members of the county central committees of political parties.
Some of the bills were moved to the next meeting for further discussion, including HB 86, requiring random hand count audits of precincts; HB 92, the recall of elected municipal offices; HB 94, changes to post-election audit procedures, and HB 95, requiring all ballots to be hand counted. HB 97, which would have changed the date for political party affiliation changes and declarations for a primary election, was tabled indefinitely.
The committee will have one final meeting in the interim Nov. 17 and 18 in Cheyenne before the next legislative session begins Jan. 12.