April 15, 2024 |
Photo – Wyoming’s Secretary of State Chuck Gray – Bigfoot99 file photo
Governor Mark Gordon on Friday rejected a proposal from the Secretary of State’s office to tighten voter registration requirements at polling places.
Secretary Gray, whose office oversees Wyoming elections, responded, saying the governor’s rejection of tightening election rules “will empower President Joe Biden by allowing illegal immigrants to vote.”
The Governor rejected the Secretary’s recommendation, writing in a letter Friday that, “The state’s election code functions well, and the countless hours spent by volunteers, election judges, canvassing boards, county clerks, town clerks, your office and numerous others have ensured for decades that Wyomingites can trust the state’s election results.”
Secretary Grey responded, saying, ““Governor Gordon is now enabling Biden and the most radical leftists in America who are trying to help illegal immigrants vote in our elections,” he said.
The proposed new rules would have required people registering to vote in Wyoming to prove residency if their form of identification didn’t already show it.
In the Governor’s rejection of the suggested changes, Gordon wrote, “Wyoming’s elections are safe and secure, as evidenced most recently by the widely accepted success of the 2022 election cycle. Moreover, remedies for suspected malfeasance or fraud, whether inadvertent or deliberate, already exist within the scope of existing statute or rule.”
Current Wyoming law does not require voters to prove their residency beyond a sworn affidavit. State law allows for election officials to investigate or challenge a voter’s qualifications and requires that a voter must be a U.S. citizen to vote in Wyoming.
In Friday’s letter, the Governor also noted how the law does not give the Secretary of State power to add statutory framework to investigate American citizenship and Wyoming residency.
Gray presented his proposed rules during a public hearing in January where most of the attendees offered support for them.
“These rules undertook a thorough vetting process and received overwhelming support from the people of Wyoming during the public comment period,” Gray said in a press release. “They should have been signed. I will continue to fight for election integrity measures to protect and improve our elections.”
Gray called Gordon’s assessment, that election fraud does not exist in Wyoming, “troubling”.
The governor called on the Wyoming Legislature to study the issue and develop new laws where necessary.
