State officials certify election results, despite objections

CHEYENNE — An election error in Weston County worried some members of the public, who called on elected officials to halt the process of certifying Wyoming’s election results for statewide offices until after there had been a hand recount of votes in all 23 counties.

However, members of the State Canvassing Board still unanimously voted to certify the state’s election results on Wednesday.

The Canvassing Board is made up of four of the state’s top five elected officials: Chairman Secretary of State Chuck Gray, Gov. Mark Gordon, State Treasurer Curt Meier and State Auditor Kristi Racines.

A hand recount was performed in Weston County on Friday after County Clerk Becky Hadlock issued two wrong versions of a printed ballot in the Nov. 5 general election, according to Gray. Unofficial election results on the Secretary of State’s website show Rep. Chip Neiman, R-Hulett, received 166 votes in the race for his House District 1 seat, and that there were 1,289 undervotes in that race from Weston County.

This is a notable drop from the 645 votes Neiman received in the 2024 Republican primary just over two months ago. In the 2022 general election, Neiman received more than 1,000 votes in Weston County, and he received 1,300 votes in the 2020 general election.

Gray said the Weston County clerk used two incorrect versions of a printed ballot during the Nov. 5 general election, instead of only using the third, correctly printed ballot.

“When the (ballot) alignment was messed up, when everything was moved down, that meant that a vote for Rep. Neiman was cast as an undervote, in the cases where those first two versions of the ballot were used,” Gray said.

He said he noticed an anomaly in the election results on the night of Nov. 5, notably in the large number of undervotes counted for HD 1. He said his office immediately tried to get in contact with Hadlock, with help from the Weston County sheriff.

The following morning, Gray’s staff gave a “lengthy presentation” to the clerk, spelling out the reasons why it believed she used incorrect ballots. Later that day, however, the clerk submitted a post-election audit, claiming no errors or observations were noted.

“That is very concerning because, at that point, our concern had been made clear multiple times, and even in a formal meeting,” Gray said. “The 21 ballots that had been identified that interacted with HD 1 were part of that post-election audit, and that post-election audit should have caught those errors.”

An analysis of the election concluded later that evening, Gray said, and it was clear there were errors caused by the misuse of improper ballots. A hand recount of the votes confirmed the clerk’s mistake, and the official results certified by the county canvassing board were reflected before the State Canvassing Board met.

Gray said his office is currently working with the Attorney General’s Office in an investigation of the Weston County clerk’s conduct around the 2024 election, including the representation she made to his office with the post-election audit.

Platte County Clerk Malcolm Ervin, who serves as president of the Wyoming County Clerks Association, said Hadlock has taken full responsibility for the issue, and county clerks will be sure to put “something in place to ensure it does not happen again.”

“I think the question underlying is, ‘Did we learn a lesson in this, and did we learn something that we can go forward and prevent in the future?’” Ervin said. “Sometimes the best lessons are those you learn the hard way, and I’m here to tell you, we learned this one the hard way.”

‘I don’t have any confidence’

The Canvassing Board meeting lasted nearly three hours, with two rounds of public comment that revealed significant concern and distrust in Wyoming’s election security and integrity.

Newcastle Mayor Pam Gualtieri asked members of the State Canvassing Board on Wednesday not to certify the election results, due to the election issues seen in Weston County and other counties around the state.

Weston County commissioner races were off by more than 60 votes, Gualtieri said. Since the clerk made a mistake in the general election, the mayor questioned if there were hidden mistakes in the primary, as well.

“I have a lot of incoming candidates that were elected who now question if they should or should not be taking their seat,” Gualtieri said.

Susan Love, who was a part of the “Weston County experience,” said if it hadn’t been for the forced investigation, those mistakes would have never been found. She questioned how many other mistakes in past elections went unnoticed.

“I don’t have any confidence in our past races now, because we’ve never been forced to look at them,” Love said. “If you certify this election knowing that one county found flipped votes, and no other counties have been checked by hand, you’re damaging the integrity of Wyoming elections.”

Jill Kaufman told elected officials the issue in Weston County was a “wake-up call.”

She also encouraged the board to suspend certifying Wyoming’s election results until there’s been a hand count of multiple races, just to “reaffirm that our machines were acting accordingly and correct with the (U.S. Election Assistance Commission) guidelines.”

Weston County GOP Chairwoman Kari Drost said a letter will be sent to the governor, calling for Hadlock’s removal as county clerk.

“If you have one person who is in charge of preparing the election, administering the election, and then auditing him or herself, that is a problem with the process,” Drost said.

Wyoming GOP Executive Director Kathy Russell said election integrity will remain a top issue for the state’s Republican Party, although she admitted she was impressed by the attention to detail in Laramie County’s election judges.

“I’ve also worked as an election judge, so I’ve seen the process from start to finish, and I am impressed with the efforts that are being made,” Russell said. “However, we have a long ways to go.”

Other resolved election issues

Four other issues also occurred in Wyoming counties during the general election — all of which were resolved and noted by Elections Division Director CJ Young during the board’s meeting.

There were two issues in Fremont County.

One, a DS200 voting machine that was dropped before the polls opened on Election Day. The machine was fully inspected by election officials and appeared to be operational, Young said.

The machine rebooted after it was shut down, and had to be fully shut down again, but election results on the machine matched what was on the USB stick.

Second, a DS200 machine that was used to count absentee ballots had an error with the loading wheel, and the results on the USB stick were blank, Young said.

The absentee ballots were moved to a DS450 machine, and those votes were recorded, he said.

In Big Horn County, a ballot was rejected because of scuff marks left on it by the voting machine. The roller was cleaned off, Young said, and the issue was remedied.

In Washakie County, an error message on a DS200 machine said the USB stick that contained election results was corrupted. An investigation revealed a ballot jam error from a sticky note caught in the paper path, and the original error message had “misdiagnosed” the problem, Young said.

A countywide election recount was triggered in Teton County after election officials discovered two jammed ballots, which added votes to the election results.

“The county canvassing board’s recount, accounting for those changes, became the official result that was certified by our office,” Young said.

This story was published on November 14, 2024.