Election 2022: ID to vote required in Wyoming

WORLAND — Voters for the upcoming Aug. 16 primary election are reminded that the Wyoming Legislature passed a bill requiring voter identification at the polls last year.

Wyoming’s Voter ID Law went into effect on July 1, 2021. The law requires voters voting at the polls to prove their identity with one of 10 different types of identity — Wyoming driver’s license or ID card, tribal ID card, valid U.S. passport, U.S. military card, driver’s license or ID card from another state, University of Wyoming or Wyoming community college student ID, Wyoming public school student ID, valid Medicare or Medicaid insurance card. The insurance cards will not be accepted after 2029.

A free Wyoming identification card can be obtained at any driver’s license services office.

Washakie County Clerk Mary Grace Strauch said voters, as has been the case, are required to show identification when registering. She said all but the insurance cards are IDs allowed when registering to vote.

She said voters requesting absentee ballots and mailing in the ballot will not be required to show ID, per the statute. Strauch said in Washakie County absentee ballots are sealed by the voters and remain sealed until the day of the election.

Some counties in Wyoming count the absentee ballots as they come in, some allow voting at the courthouse, in those cases voter ID will be required, Strauch said.

“Basically, you had to show ID to register to vote and now you will have to show ID to vote at the polls,” Strauch said. “Everyone will have to show ID. You can’t say ‘well you’ve known me for 25 years.’”

Provisional ballots will be available for people without ID but they must return within 24 hours and show ID for the ballot to be processed.

In other election news, Strauch said she has already fielded about 25 requests for absentee ballots. Ballots should be available on July 6.

She said she is looking for election judges from the Democratic party. She said she has a good list of judges from the Republican party but is required to have a balance of judges between the two major parties on election day, Aug. 16.

SIGNS

The Wyoming Department of Transportation this month issued a reminder that advertising signs cannot be placed in the state right-of-way.

“With the upcoming elections, we’ve seen an increase in the number of signs our maintenance crews are having to remove from the right-of-way fence or from the right-of-way itself,” said WYDOT area maintenance supervisor Mike Hitshew of Lander. “Wyoming law and WYDOT policy prohibit placement of signs in those areas, so when our maintenance crews come through an area, they pick them up and take them to the area maintenance office. Whoever owns the sign has two weeks to claim the sign, and then we dispose of the sign if it is not claimed.”

Strauch said state law 22-25-115 also prohibits campaign advertising “on or attached to any real or personal property of the state or its political subdivisions (counties). This prohibition shall not apply to fairgrounds of the Wyoming state fair or of any county fair organized under the laws of this state.”