The Laramie County GOP already filed a complaint with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office on Tuesday over the issue. The Wyoming GOP executive committee decided to initiate the lawsuit in order “to take all measures to restore integrity in the election.”
Wyoming GOP Chairman W. Frank Eathorne said he doesn’t believe the county’s Republican Party is listed as a plaintiff in the case.
“The procedure needs to be done correctly, or we can’t trust the results,” Eathorne said. “Therefore, we can’t trust the machines and the outcome.”
During a voting machine test Monday, Laramie County GOP Chairman Taft Love noticed that the ballots fed into the machine had the same number of votes for each candidate. Under Wyoming statute, the machines must be fed ballots with a varied number of votes for candidates.
Platte County Clerk Malcolm Ervin, a member of the County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming, said this guideline is part of ensuring that votes are counted accurately.
“If candidates have the same number of votes, you can’t definitively say that the votes intended for that person were counted that way,” Ervin said. “You want to make sure that every result is distinct and unique.”
Love notified Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee of the violation on Monday. According to Love, Lee said she would reach out to the voting company, Electronic Systems & Software (ES&S), for a new set of ballots to run another test.
However, at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Love received an email from Lee, stating she had not heard back from the company, and it would be another week before she could get back to him. In order to “protect election integrity,” Love filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s Office on behalf of the Laramie County GOP.
Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackl launched an investigation Tuesday, Love said, and is currently in conversation with Lee and the Laramie County attorney. That same day, Secretary of State Chuck Gray sent a letter to the Laramie County clerk. Gray said in the letter that the assignment of the same number of votes to each candidate “is contrary to” state statute and that “these allegations are very concerning.”
Two-week window
The Wyoming GOP is asking the district court “to declare that the electronic tabulating machines have not been properly tested and issue an injunction to safeguard the integrity of our primary election,” according to a Wyoming GOP news release sent out early Thursday.
The purpose of the injunction is to either retest the voting tabulating machines or “arrive at another counting method, such as hand counting (ballots) that is allowed by state statute,” Love said. Since it is now past the two-week deadline, Eathorne said the “only outstanding option” is to hand-count ballots.
However, Ervin said the likelihood of switching to a hand-count “is practically zero.” The purpose of the two-week window is to reconcile any issues or concerns after the first test, he said.
“I don’t think it prohibits you from testing (again) within that window,” Ervin said.
Voting machines, hand count ballots
There is a lot of mistrust within the state’s Republican Party related to the reliability of electronic tabulating machines. Eathorne said the flawed voting test in Laramie County created further mistrust from the public.
“This just verifies the public’s uneasiness in trusting electronic devices of any sort,” Eathorne said. “Everything from laptops to memory sticks to the tabulators themselves.”
He added there’s at least one other county — Weston County — that’s considering switching to hand-counting ballots “to ensure integrity in the outcome.”
However, Ervin said hand-counting isn’t anywhere near as reliable as the electronic tabulates.
“In my experience, hand counting has not been very accurate,” Ervin said. “Humans partaking in repetitive tasks has potential for issues. And so, personally, I would be less confident if we fully hand counted (the ballots).”
He also doubted the county would switch to a hand-counting method this close to the primary election.
“Our system and statutes are built around an electronic voting system,” Ervin said.
If the Wyoming Legislature decided in the next session to completely switch to hand-counting ballots, then county clerks would oblige, he added.
“We would follow the law,” he said.
© 2024 Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, Wyo.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
