This story was updated to include details about the amicus brief filed Friday by 25 states and Guam, and to clarify Sec. Gray’s previous claims. —Ed.
The Republican National Committee filed a motion in federal court Thursday asking to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Wyoming’s new voter registration law.
Set to go into effect on Tuesday, the law requires a person to provide proof of state residency and U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. The law will also require someone registering to vote to attest that they’ve lived in Wyoming for at least 30 days.
Equality State Policy Center, a voting-rights group, filed a lawsuit in May, alleging the new law will impose an undue burden on the right to vote and is unconstitutionally vague as written. The group has asked the court to prevent the law from going into effect while the case plays out.
High-profile attorneys — who have fought for and against President Trump on the national stage — have since flocked to both sides of the case. Plus, a coalition of 25 states and Guam filed a proposed amicus brief Friday, urging the court to allow the law to go into effect.
“Wyoming follows four other states — Arizona, Kansas, Georgia, and Alabama — that have taken similar steps to ensure that only United States citizens are registered to vote,” the brief states, before accusing the plaintiff of seeking to “thwart democracy in the name of democracy.”
As for the Republican National Committee, “when a state’s election laws are challenged in federal court, political parties should be granted intervention to protect their unique interests,” the group argued in its Thursday motion to intervene.
If the court grants the request, the RNC would become a defendant in the case alongside Secretary of State Chuck Gray and the state’s 23 county clerks.
As the primary governing body for the Republican Party in the United States, the group is responsible for organizing the party’s national convention, developing its political platform, coordinating campaign strategies and fundraising.
When Arizona’s documentary-proof-of-citizenship requirement was challenged “on the same constitutional grounds in federal court, the RNC was granted intervention,” according to the motion.
Wyoming’s law was a key priority for Gray and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, which wields a majority in the Wyoming House of Representatives.
The secretary and the Freedom Caucus have both claimed Wyoming was “the first in the nation” to require proof of citizenship to register to vote for all elections. The RNC’s motion, however, indicates Arizona had already adopted a similar measure which only applied to some elections and seen it challenged in court.
“The RNC’s involvement has proven essential in that [Arizona] case; it has raised arguments and appealed decisions that the state defendants wouldn’t, and it secured emergency relief from the Supreme Court this past election cycle that each state defendant opposed,” the motion states.
The RNC also argues that “safeguarding Republican voter confidence in the legitimacy of Wyoming’s electoral process” necessitates the group’s intervention in the case.
Last November, prior to the election, almost 90% of Wyoming adults said they expected their county’s tally of ballots for president in the 2024 election to be very or somewhat reliable, according to a University of Wyoming survey.
If the court were to rule against the new law, “the RNC would need to divert resources from other mission-critical activities towards get-out-the-vote activities to reinsure Republican voter trust in Wyoming’s electoral system, to independently verify the accuracy of Wyoming’s voter registration rolls, and to educate voters and candidates concerning Wyoming’s changed registration requirements,” the motion argues.
The RNC also argues that the current defendants — Gray and the state’s county clerks — do not adequately represent the Republican Party’s interests.
“Defendants are Wyoming state officials, who must necessarily represent ‘the public interest,’” the motion states. “By contrast, the RNC’s interest is inherently ‘partisan.’”
Gray told WyoFile he welcomes “this motion to help support our arguments in defending Wyoming’s common-sense, conservative election integrity law requiring proof of citizenship for registering to vote.”
“We need all hands on deck to combat radical left-wing DNC attorney Marc Elias’ attacks on any and all conservative election integrity reforms, including Wyoming’s common-sense proof of citizenship requirement,” Gray wrote.
Friday marked the deadline for Gray and his attorneys to respond to the Equality State Policy Center’s request for a temporary restraining order against the law until the case has been resolved. It had not been filed by publishing time.
Democrat in fighting has gotten so bad that they have resorted to shooting each other in Minnesota. Hopefully it stays contained there
your comment is a lie and on par with mike lee’s bullshit response. you’re a waste of flesh larry, and wyofile shouldn’t have posted your response.
I think even you don’t believe what you’re saying.