Action Alert: There are a slew of bills that would restrict the right to vote in Wyoming.
Status as of Feb 19, 2025:
SF0184 Hand Counting of Ballots status: Dead
HB0144 County Canvassing Boards status: Passed in the House – now in the Senate Corporations Committee.
HB0165 Ranked Choice Voting Prohibition status: Passed in the House – now in the Senate Revenue Committee
HB0215 Prohibition of electronic voting equipment status: Dead
HB0131 Ballot Drop Boxes Prohibition status: Passed in the House – now in the Senate Corporations Committee
HB0156 Proof of Voter Residency status: Passed in the House – now in the Senate Corporations Committee
HB0160 Repeal of Student ID s for voting IDS status: Passed in the House
HB0249 Runoff Elections status: Passed in the House – now in the Senate Corporations Committee
These bills have already passed the House and have been introduced in the Senate. But, there may be amendments in either body requiring consultation between the two chambers. Thus, it is important to address your comments to both your Representative in the House and your Senator.
The main talking points for all these bills are:
1) Voting is the language and power of American democracy. The ability to have a voice in choosing the elected officials whose decisions will impact ours and our children’s lives and communities is at the core of what it means to be an American. It is a precious and fundamental right of being a citizen of this country. To restrict this right is to disenfranchise many of our citizens civil rights.
2) It has been shown time and time again that voting is safe and secure in Wyoming. Ed Buchanan, our previous Secretary of State, has stated this many times. Voting machines are like cash registers, they just scan and quickly count votes. There never has been a connection to the internet. The voting machines are checked for accuracy with members of the public invited to witness these tests before each election. They have been shown to be highly accurate and fast. The County Clerks have supported the use of these machines.
3) There have been virtually no cases of voter fraud or non-citizen voting in Wyoming since records have been kept. The County Clerks have stated this is a non problem. These bills would make voting more difficult and less secure than the system we currently have in place. They would make registering to vote more difficult, voting more difficult because of ID restrictions, make counting votes less secure and much slower. Hand counting of ballots has been shown over and over again to be less accurate and much slower than the use of these highly accurate and fast electronic counting machines. It appears that the purpose of these bills is to make voting more difficult, less accurate, less secure, and tallying the votes much slower.
4) The combination of hand counting ballots and canvassing boards deciding who would be on the general ballot plus a canvassing board made up of local party appointed members rather than appointed by the county clerk is a dangerous change in our election security. It leaves our elections subject to miscounting ballots and bias in certifying our elections.
You can read all these bills via the links provided above. Please contact your Senators to oppose these bills. One of the most effective ways to provide comment is to testify in person or by zoom at a committee meeting. Go to Joint and Standing committees in the Wyoleg.gov site, scroll down to the next committee meeting date, click on that and there will be a link you can click on to testify. Sign up the day before the scheduled committee meeting. You can provide written comments in the comment link provided in the drop down menu under the link to each of these bills or use the contact info below:
Your engagement in the legislative process is of upmost importance. Your representatives in our legislature do pay attention to their constituents because they want to get reelected! Please provide your comments in whatever means is best for you.
Thank you to the League of Women Voters of Wyoming for this information.
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