In a news release on Monday, Secretary of State Chuck Grey said that he had written to a number of county clerks in Wyoming, requesting that they retest their voting machines “in light of multiple reports” that these tests were not in conformity with state law. “This issue was not unique to Laramie County,” Grey stated in the press statement.
The Secretary of State’s Office received a complaint from the Laramie County Republican Party last week, alleging that the county’s voting machine test was not conducted in accordance with state law. The complaint states that the same number of votes were cast for each contender on ballots fed into the system on August 5. A variable amount of votes for each candidate must be fed into the machines in accordance with Wyoming statutes.
Related News: A suburb of Athens witnesses devastation following a wildfire Grey stated in the press release that “multiple counties” had made the same error. Eight days prior to the August 20 primary election, Grey stated in a press statement that these counties’ clerks have been requested to retest their voting devices. County clerks are the chief election officials for the county, but they are not required by law to comply with Gray’s request. But out of extreme caution, Platte County Clerk Malcolm Ervin told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that other county clerks are retesting their voting equipment.
Even for the counties whose testing were successful and in compliance with the law, Ervin added, “It certainly adds stress.” There is a myth that our machinery malfunctioned. In all honesty, the apparatus did not malfunction. The apparatus performed as intended.” According to Ervin, the only “failure” was the test deck of ballots that was allegedly discovered to be in violation of Wyoming statute. He went on to say that for this reason, there is a strong call for public engagement in these voting tests. “There were no representatives from the political parties” in some of the counties that were having their voting machine tests redone, he claimed.
According to state law, county clerks in Wyoming must inform and extend an invitation to the county chairperson of every political party fielding a candidate for the exam. According to Ervin, there is a Wyoming statute that permits anyone to complain to the district court “to stop the use of the (voting) equipment.” Taft Love, the chairman of the Laramie County GOP, filed the only complaint of that kind in Laramie County.
The only county to have gone through that procedure is Laramie County, according to Love. Because they were compelled by law to do so, these other counties are not doing it. They were exercising extreme caution in doing so. Sylvia Hackl, the district attorney for Laramie County, opened an investigation after receiving a local complaint. In response to the filed complaint, the Wyoming GOP filed a lawsuit of its own against Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee on Thursday. The Republican Party of the state is requesting that the Laramie County District Court either cease using these voting machines until after another test is conducted or provide a different count method, like a manual count.
As of Monday afternoon, Lee had not responded to calls or emails requesting comment on whether a fresh test had been arranged. Prior to the primary election, Ervin informed the WTE that there was “zero” chance the county would move to a hand-count voting method.
Add Comment