Committee confirms election results in Wyoming without much fanfare after turbulent primary

CHEYENNE – A routine post-election review of Wyoming’s 2024 primary results revealed “no findings or observations,” the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office reported Wednesday.

“I want to take this opportunity to say that this was a great election,” Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray said Wednesday at the state campaign committee meeting.

The committee met, as required by state law, to certify the election results. And it did so largely without drama – a stark contrast to Wyoming's past few months, which have been marked by negative campaigning, contentious infomercials, expensive elections, a last-minute furore over voting machines, at least two election-related lawsuits and a rebuke of a county clerk.

The committee — comprised of Gray, Gov. Mark Gordon, State Treasurer Curt Meier and State Auditor Kristi Racines — voted unanimously to certify the results. It also certified three Democratic candidates for the Statehouse who were not elected in the districts. These included Larry Allwyn in the 28th District, Martha Wright in the 29th District and Carmen Whitehead in the 60th District.

“I want to thank the county clerks, poll workers, poll watchers and other volunteers who made the 2024 primary a success,” Gray said.

In addition to his statement, Gray invited participants to comment in person and online three times throughout the meeting. Malcolm Ervin, Platte County clerk and president of the Wyoming County Clerks' Association, was one of the four who took the floor.

“On Election Day, you have to make an effort to solve small problems,” Ervin said to Gray. “So I want to thank you and your office for being so accessible. Not only on Election Day, but also in the run-up to it. It really helps us a lot, it's a big effort, and we're grateful for any help.”

Details

CJ Young, chief of the Elections Division in the Secretary of State's office, told the panel that there were two incidents on Election Day that, while resolved, were still worthy of attention.

One case occurred in Sweetwater County, where a backup counter had to be used after another jammed, initially resulting in three ballots being cast twice. In Lincoln County, ballots had to be recounted after a poll worker prematurely removed a media stick when closing the machine.

Both incidents were resolved on election night.

“I want to highlight these moments to emphasize that we always address them when issues arise,” Young said. “There are contingency plans in place for election incidents and we conduct training and exercises throughout the year to prepare these employees for these difficult situations.”

Young assured the panel that concerns leading up to Election Day – including the testing of voting machines – had been addressed. Wyoming Republicans had issued several “election integrity” warnings ahead of the primary after routine testing of voting machines in several counties failed to comply with state law. The state party also sued Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee over a faulty test in her jurisdiction.

“When this problem was identified, it was immediately reported to county officials, who subsequently retested their equipment in accordance with Wyoming law,” Young said.

However, one voter at the meeting continued to raise concerns about the state's vote-counting machines.

“From where I stand, it looks weird,” said Susan Graham, a Laramie County resident.

The state's Republicans also remain skeptical. Their executive committee voted to reprimand Lee earlier this week. The reprimand is largely symbolic and does not include any substantive punishment such as removal from office or loss of authority. Republicans in Wyoming have previously reprimanded other Republican politicians, including Governor Mark Gordon earlier this year.

While the primary resulted in the lowest turnout since 2016, Young said that was to be expected given that the five most important state offices are not up for re-election. The 2022 primary also saw unusually high turnout due to international attention on Wyoming in the congressional race between Liz Cheney and Harriet Hageman, making this year's decline even more pronounced.

A WyoFile analysis of past primaries without a gubernatorial election shows similar voter turnout figures to 2024. About 27% of eligible voters in

Wyoming participated in this year's primary, according to figures from the State Department and the U.S. Census Bureau, comparable to the last three non-pandemic primaries (2016 – 25.6%, 2012 – 25%, 2008 – 26.5%) in which there was no gubernatorial election.

It was the first election since lawmakers shortened the deadline for mail-in voting and imposed restrictions on voters' political party affiliation.

Gray called both “election integrity reform,” a characterization that Marissa Carpio of the Equality State Policy Center rejected during the meeting.

“The demand for new laws such as the [party affiliation] “The 'election integrity reforms' of shortening the deadline to file ballots and reducing the absentee ballot deadline are dishonest,” Carpio told the board via Zoom. “These measures were voter suppression tactics, and the extremely low turnout in the primary election confirms that.”

At the meeting, Gray cited two factors for the decline in voter turnout.

One is the fact that we have an election integrity measure that prevents one party from participating in another party's primary, which is the ban on cross-voting,” he said. “And I think that biased media coverage, one-sided media coverage, has affected voter turnout in many ways.”

The general elections will take place on November 5.