OPINION: WTE offers thumbs up and down 10-22-22

Oct. 22—UP to members of the Wyoming Legislature's Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee for advancing two bills designed to improve the election process in the state.

By an 8-5 vote, committee members advanced legislation that would require a special election if more than half of a term remains after an official leaves office. Had it been in place earlier this year, however, this measure wouldn't have affected either of the vacancies left by the resignation of two of the state's top five elected officials.

In January, former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow stepped down to take a similar position in Virginia. Last month, former Secretary of State Ed Buchanan resigned to become a district judge in Goshen County. In both cases, the Wyoming Republican Party forwarded three names to Gov. Mark Gordon, who was required to hold his nose and pick one of the three to fill the vacancy.

As a result, Wyoming currently has someone with very limited public school experience running the state's K-12 education system, and a party official who has lost multiple races for state Legislature and believes the state's election process is flawed overseeing the November general election.

Thankfully, both Brian Schroeder and Karl Allred have less than three more months in office before their elected replacements take over (not that we expect one of them to be much better). If there had been more than two years left on their predecessors' four-year terms, though, we think a special election would have been a better option. We'd actually like to see this bill amended to require such an election if there's more than one year left on the term, though we understand it takes time and money to conduct special elections.

A second bill, also advanced by an 8-5 vote, would create a pilot program for municipalities to conduct nonpartisan ranked-choice general elections. As we've said here in the past, we believe ranked-choice voting — in which voters rank their picks in each race, with 1 being their top choice, 2 their second-favorite, etc. — is better than the existing plurality system because it results in elected officials who have received more than 50% of the votes cast without having to hold runoff elections.

We hope to eventually see this system used at all levels statewide. But, given the entrenched partisanship being demonstrated by the majority party at this time, including local Republicans endorsing a slate of nonpartisan school board candidates, we'll be surprised if this one makes it through next year's general session.

DOWN to those who testified to the same committee about alleged voter fraud without providing a shred of proof that the situations they described actually happened.

For example, Matt Freeman, the Constitution Party candidate in House District 41, said he was told "first-hand" that a poll watcher in Cheyenne was sent home at 7 p.m. on primary election day, Aug. 16, even though there was still a line of residents waiting to vote. Sorry, Mr. Freeman, but unless you witnessed this yourself, or that poll watcher was you, that's second-hand information, at best.

Wyoming GOP Executive Director Kathy Russell testified that she has received three calls from people who told her they were voting in multiple states, including Wyoming. Unfortunately, she said, none of them would give her their names or say where they were voting, so this information lacks credibility, as well.

Committee leaders should have demanded first-hand accounts only, rather than wasting more than two hours listening to story after story of things people heard someone pass along through the grapevine. This was a waste of legislators' valuable time and does nothing but pour fuel on the flames of doubt about our electoral process that have no place burning in the first place.

The bottom line, which some Wyoming residents and certain party leaders refuse to accept, is that — with very few, very limited exceptions — our elections are secure and produce trustworthy results, both here and in other states. There is no widespread voter fraud, no matter how much a failed former president and his partisan-media supporters want to try to convince people otherwise.

Wyoming lawmakers should be doing all they can to remind residents of that fact.

DOWN to the aforementioned interim Secretary of State Karl Allred for suggesting that clerks in seven counties should consider removing their absentee ballot drop boxes for the Nov. 8 general election. But UP to all seven for so far refusing to do so.

As the clerks in Albany, Big Horn, Converse, Fremont, Laramie, Sweetwater and Teton counties know, there are no security concerns related to these drop boxes, and multiple verification measures exist to ensure the integrity of the ballots in the counties that use them.

Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee reminded voters through an interview with a Wyoming Tribune Eagle reporter that the county's single drop box on the east side of the county courthouse is monitored 24/7 by video surveillance, the ballots are removed in a timely manner, and the chain-of-custody logs maintain a record of their whereabouts at all times.

Mr. Allred acknowledged as much in his letter to county clerks, writing, "I'm mindful of the fact that there have been no issues reported with the use of drop boxes in Wyoming, but that does not alleviate the potential for abuse or destruction of ballots through use of fire or other means."

Again, this attempt to sow seeds of doubt about a process that is secure — as well as the associated slap in the face of county officials who work hard to ensure its integrity — is both ludicrous and distasteful. Simply put, Wyoming leaders should be better than this.

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