Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray has done everything he can to try to convince voters the state’s elections system has widespread problems that only he can fix.
Opinion
But the only voter fraud in Wyoming is the lie that the state has rampant voter fraud issues. It doesn’t, and Gray’s claims are easily debunked.
Fortunately, the latest obstacle to voting that the former Republican lawmaker from Casper has proposed — tougher residency requirements — is being challenged by groups that know the truth.
Since 2000, Wyomingites have cast millions of ballots, and only four people have been convicted in three instances of voter fraud — all Republicans. That’s not a claim from a liberal organization, but a fact from a database maintained by the Heritage Foundation, a nationally prominent right-wing think tank.
Gray may not have looked up that election information, but he’s very familiar with the Heritage Foundation. Earlier this year, he ditched a bipartisan meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State in Washington, D.C., in favor of going to an all-GOP affair sponsored by the foundation.
The Guardian, a British investigative newspaper, described the latter convention as “an incubator of policies that would restrict access to the ballot box and amplify false claims that fraud is rampant in American elections” to dampen Democratic turnout and help Republicans win elections.
It seems Gray is using some of what he learned back home, where he’s busy trying to disenfranchise some voters in a state where almost 82% of the registered voters are Republicans, according to the secretary of state’s elections website. How much more help does the party need?
Oops, I forgot there are “real” GOP members like Gray who deserve to have their voices heard, and RINOs — “Republicans in name only” — whose impure thinking can’t be allowed to poison the blood of the party. My bad.
It takes some inventiveness for the supervisor of state elections to throw monkey wrenches into the system, because registering to vote in Wyoming is a fairly easy process. You must be at least 18 years old by the next election date, and have either a valid driver’s license or possess one of several other identification options, including a U.S. passport; a military, student, or tribal ID card; or one issued by any local, state or federal agency.
A person must also take an oath stating they are a “bona fide resident” of Wyoming. Several county clerks asked the Legislature to provide a definition of that requirement, and the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee will sponsor a bill during February’s budget session to add that a voter must be a Wyoming resident for at least 30 days before the election.
That’s a reasonable requirement that’s in line with U.S. Supreme Court rulings. But it’s not good enough for Gray, who announced a proposed rule on Dec. 7 to require additional documentation for voters to prove their residency if they have an ID card that does not list their current address. That could include a utility bill, bank statement or paycheck.
There are two problems with Gray’s plan. First, several lawmakers correctly contend only the Legislature has the authority to make such a change to the election code.
Gray’s plan could also disenfranchise some voters, or at least add an unnecessary hurdle to voting, because many ID cards list people’s post office box number, not their street address.
Rep. Liz Storer (D-Jackson) told the Jackson Hole News&Guide that Gray’s residency rule proposal is “a cynical, anti-democratic effort that should be stopped in its tracks.”
“Far-right extremists like Chuck Gray know they win when fewer people vote, so they want to make voting harder,” she charged. “Voters already sign an affidavit; requiring redundant proof of residency is not in statute, and thus shouldn’t be required through the rulemaking process, either.”
The Equality State Policy Center and Wyoming League of Women Voters both sent letters to the secretary of state’s office that identified potential problems with Gray’s proposed residency rule.
The ESPC, a nonpartisan coalition dedicated to state government transparency and accountability, noted the rule could negatively impact women in shelters, Wind River Indian Reservation residents and the unhoused.
“We must strike a balance between safeguarding the integrity of our elections and guaranteeing that all eligible citizens have unimpeded access to the ballot box,” wrote ESPC Policy Director Marissa Carpio.
The League of Women Voters said the Legislature is the appropriate body to determine voter qualifications. Gray’s proposed rule, it added, would likely “result in long lines of frustrated and angry voters who will have to return home for more documents.” They must cast a provisional ballot that won’t be counted until additional documents are provided to the county clerk.
The secretary of state’s office will take public comments on the draft rule through Friday, Jan. 26. On the final day there will be a public hearing at 1 p.m. in the Capitol Extension Conference Center in Cheyenne. People can also attend virtually by registering via Zoom.
“It really feels like the secretary of state would prefer to just be a lawmaker,” Rep. Mike Yin (D-Jackson) told the Jackson Hole newspaper. “And he is welcome to do that by running for the Legislature.” Yin was polite enough not to point out that Gray was spectacularly ineffective as a lawmaker, nor to suggest that his ineptitude in the House may have contributed to his preference for executive fiat.
But Gray is on to bigger things. It was clear even before his 2022 secretary-of-state campaign that his sights were set on the next governor’s race.
Despite holding a safe seat in Casper’s conservative House District 57, Gray had little success, and even less respect from his colleagues, to show for his six years in office.
It’s just conjecture on my part, but Gray’s incompetence then and now may stem from the early-thirty-something’s utter lack of professional work experience. If he’s ever held a private-sector job other than “working” for his father’s radio stations, he’s kept that experience to himself. His final session in 2022 was fittingly representative: none of the five bills Gray sponsored passed, including a pair that would have renamed State Highway 258 in honor of Wyoming’s biggest 2020 vote-getter, former President Donald Trump.
How in the world can we have a presidential election denier who falsely says the 2020 contest was “clearly rigged” against Trump now in charge of making sure our state’s elections are fair?
In 2022, 27 “deniers” ran for their respective secretary of state offices. Only three were elected: Gray in Wyoming, Wes Allen in Alabama and Diego Morales in Indiana.
When he was still a state legislator, Gray visited an Arizona election audit conducted by the infamous “Cyber Ninjas.” He praised the crazy effort, which 10 months after the election discovered 360 more votes for President Joe Biden.
Gray unsuccessfully pushed for a similar audit in Wyoming. He apparently didn’t know an automatic audit had already been conducted by Wyoming county clerks, who found the results were 100% accurate — Trump did indeed win the state by 120,000 votes.
Republican primary voters in 2022 had a clear choice: Gray, who toured the state offering free showings of a widely discredited documentary that claimed Democrats stuffed ballot boxes for Biden, or state Sen. Tara Nethercott of Cheyenne, a dyed-in-the-wool old-school conservative and a vigorous defender of Wyoming’s election integrity.
Gray won by nearly 13,000 votes. He didn’t dispute that result.
Mucking up the state’s election system has long been a fixation for Gray, but not the only thing on his mind. The “pro-life” official has unsuccessfully tried to intervene in a lawsuit brought by several plaintiffs against the state’s ban on abortion.
Gray also filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Trump before the Colorado Supreme Court recently ruled the former president can’t be on that state’s 2024 presidential ballot (which is on hold pending federal court action).
Sen. Mike Gierau (D-Jackson) has some really good advice that Gray obviously won’t follow.
“With all due respect, I think he really ought to hunker down and just try to stay in his lane,” Gierau told the News&Guide. “And kind of get a handle on his job.”
Its a well known fact that Jackson is the center of democrat misinformation and an illigal alian sancuary. After all wealthy California and NY migrants] democrats need their slave labor to clean and manacure their homes and landscapes. Thus I’d ignore any political retoric coming out of Teton county.
My Wyoming driver’s license has my mailing address and my physical address on it! Isn’t that all I need to vote in a state I have voted in for nearly sixty years?
Great article, about time someone exposed this guy! Let’s hope WY voters take heed.
I thoroughly support Secretary Gray’s voting requirement initiative and wholeheartedly agree that proof of residency should be actual proof – not a phony ruse in order to sway election results. I think all states should follow his lead and hope the legislature has the wherewithal to support this legislation.
Chuck Gray’s election to Secretary of State, over Tara Nethercott, used to seem to me the biggest puzzle in recent Wyoming politics. I could not understand how Li’l Chuck, without a single obvious qualification, could beat Nethercott, who actually understood the duties of the office. But it’s no puzzle after all. Gray, a savvy politician, long has worn the Trumpist colors, and parrotted the Trumpist lines about election fraud. That gets the GOP votes in Wyoming. Nethercott followed a different strategy. It didn’t work for Gray in the first state-wide race he entered, for U.S. House: Trump anointed Harriet Hageman, and Gray had the sense to withdraw pronto from that race and back Hageman, thereby keeping his Trumpist reputation intact for later use. As Secretary of State, Gray has continued to burnish that reputation by beating the threats-to-elections drum, despite (as he well knows) the absence of evidence of any threat. But evidence matters not one whit to him. He has no interest in trustworthy elections that people can easily participate in, which motivate the likes of the League of Women Voters, the Equality State Policy Center, Kerry Drake, and the RINOs. He’s there to build distrust in our elections, which has two benefits. In the shorter term, it keeps him in the public eye and focuses the spotlight on his Trumpist reputation, for the good of his political future, which may well (as Drake speculates) include running for governor. (But what if Hageman decides to be governor? Hmm.) In the longer term, that distrust will be crucial to right-wingers in challenging election results that they dislike; and such challenges, they know, will become increasingly necessary as the demographics of the USA continue to change.
Bend the knee to the MAGA Californian, Wyoming.
Chuck Gray ALL THE WAY!
For a man of such stature and appearance his CONVICTION sure has ruffled plenty of feathers to feather a bed and pillow I might add.
This individual’s charisma and enthusiasm has been needed for quite some time but unfortunately to the side street armchair warriors and collective dissenters who are still barely hanging on with their crossover voting must be looking over their shoulders wondering who’s GONNA spill the beans for an easy ride outta prison?
This Man of such stature seems to have a CONVICTION that has no end and the stamina portrayed is mind boggling to say the least, so yes don’t let the armchair you are resting in swallow you up to a cold CONVICTION of three hots and a cot, SEMPER FI!
CHUCK GRAY ALL THE WAY!!!
Drake’s ox is being gored, again! In anticipation of reading something about a voting issue I found a diatribe against Gray. I have neither the knowledge of nor interest in Gray’s past political actions, but it is my understanding that a Secretary of State has the role of supervising the state’s elections but cannot change the laws governing them. The suggestion that proof of a physical address be required seems reasonable to expect of an INFORMED electorate, one with advanced knowledge of the requirement and the ability to prepare for same — especially when many agencies, including UPS and FedEx, do not deliver to a postal box address. This is far from being considered an “undemocratic” requirement or action!
Both UPS and FedEx are publicly traded corporations, not agencies of the US government. That’s something that the INFORMED electorate should know.
My Wyoming driver’s license lists a PO box. This is the norm in Teton Country, which is what Gray’s proposal is aimed at. I know the rest of the state doesn’t consider us to be part of Wyoming, but that’s a you problem.
Gray, trump and other maga right wing nuts have wasted so much precious time; time needed to address real problems like housing and wages. Proof of residency is required to obtain a driver’s license, the most common form of identification presented at the polls and that should suffice as it has in years past. Our local election officers know their jobs; Gray doesn’t.