Lawmakers shoot down slate of election bills on day one

The legislative session had yet to begin, but a press conference in a small room of the Wyoming Capitol had already taken on a tone of alarm and urgency.

“I’m here today because the League of Women Voters has identified a slate of election bills proposed under the guise of election integrity that will intentionally and effectively make it harder for eligible, law-abiding Wyoming citizens to vote and to have a voice in their government,” Linda Barton, president of the Wyoming League of Women Voters, told a crowd of about 20 on Monday morning. 

The league, which organized the press conference, created a fact sheet listing nine election-related committee bills of concern — measures to ban ballot drop boxes and ballot collecting, among other things. “We urge the Wyoming Legislature to oppose legislation that creates unwarranted barriers to hard-working, honest Wyomingites casting their votes,” the document read. 

Many of the bills in question were repeats. But unlike before, they came out of the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee “with strong support” for the 2026 session, Kari Eakins, the league’s Cheyenne president, pointed out. 

Committee bills have historically received more deference from lawmakers, since considerable time and money have already been invested in vetting them before they make it to session. “That, historically in Wyoming, can increase a bill’s chances of being enacted into law,” Eakins said. 

But this fear so far has not played out. All but one of the measures on the league’s list died Monday afternoon.

Lawmakers in the House shot down six election-related committee bills that would have banned ballot drop boxes, barred ballot collecting, required random ballot hand count audits, directed counties to use pen and paper ballots, expanded poll watcher access and raised the bar for independent candidates to appear on the general election ballot — all measures that were included on the league’s list. 

The damage on the Senate side was less severe. Lawmakers killed Senate File 29, a committee bill that would have restricted acceptable identification for voting. 

Only one of the bills on the league’s list survived an introductory vote: Senate File 28, which would create stricter requirements for testing voting machines. (A couple of other election-related committee bills, Senate File 30, “Elections-voter registration revisions,” and House Bill 52, “Elections-hand counting for recounts,” also made it past the introductory hurdle, but the league didn’t specify these as bills of concern for the organization.) 

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus — a group of hard-line Republicans that took control of the House last election cycle — held its own press conference prior to these votes championing the soon-to-be-dead bills as a move toward greater “election integrity.” 

The caucus was quick to react to the graveyard of election bills Monday evening, taking to X to accuse so-called “RINOs” — or Republicans In Name Only — and Democrats of teaming up “to kill election integrity bills” that were sponsored by the “now-conservative” Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee. “Turns out they never really cared about the bills being committee bills — they’re just leftists,” the post concludes. 

But even as the dust settled Monday, much remains to be seen about potential election bills lawmakers have yet to address this session. The deadline for all bill drafts to be in their final form is noon Wednesday. That means individual lawmakers could still try to bring back similar measures. 

Some lawmakers have already sponsored their own election bills. Lingle Republican Rep. Scott Smith, for instance, is the primary sponsor of the “Election purity and hand count act,” which outlines requirements for using paper ballots and hand counts. 

That being said, these bills will still have to overcome the budget session’s two-thirds introductory vote. 

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