CHEYENNE—The Wyoming Republican Party filed a lawsuit Thursday against Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee over a flawed voting machine test that was performed earlier this week.
The Laramie County GOP already filed a complaint with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office on Tuesday over the issue. The Wyoming GOP executive committee decided to initiate the lawsuit in order “to take all measures to restore integrity in the election.”
Wyoming GOP Chairman W. Frank Eathorne said he doesn’t believe the county’s Republican Party is listed as a plaintiff in the case.
“The procedure needs to be done correctly, or we can’t trust the results,” Eathorne said. “Therefore, we can’t trust the machines and the outcome.”
During a voting machine test Monday, Laramie County GOP Chairman Taft Love noticed that the ballots fed into the machine had the same number of votes for each candidate. Under Wyoming statute, the machines must be fed ballots with a varied number of votes for candidates.
Platte County Clerk Malcolm Ervin, a member of the County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming, said this guideline is part of ensuring that votes are counted accurately.
“If candidates have the same number of votes, you can’t definitively say that the votes intended for that person were counted that way,” Ervin said. “You want to make sure that every result is distinct and unique.”
Love notified Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee of the violation on Monday. According to Love, Lee said she would reach out to the voting company, Electronic Systems & Software, for a new set of ballots to run another test.
However, at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Love received an email from Lee, stating she had not heard back from the company, and it would be another week before she could get back to him. In order to “protect election integrity,” Love filed a complaint with the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office on behalf of the Laramie County GOP.
Laramie County District Attorney Sylvia Hackl launched an investigation Tuesday, Love said, and is currently in conversation with Lee and the Laramie County attorney. That same day, Secretary of State Chuck Gray sent a letter to the Laramie County clerk. Gray said in the letter that the assignment of the same number of votes to each candidate “is contrary to” state statute and that “these allegations are very concerning.”
Two-week window
The Wyoming GOP is asking the district court “to declare that the electronic tabulating machines have not been properly tested and issue an injunction to safeguard the integrity of our primary election,” according to a Wyoming GOP news release sent out early Thursday.
The purpose of the injunction is to either retest the voting tabulating machines or “arrive at another counting method, such as hand counting [ballots] that is allowed by state statute,” Love said. Since it is now past the two-week deadline, Eathorne said the “only outstanding option” is to hand-count ballots.
However, Ervin said the likelihood of switching to a hand-count “is practically zero.” The purpose of the two-week window is to reconcile any issues or concerns after the first test, he said.
“I don’t think it prohibits you from testing [again] within that window,” Ervin said.
Voting machines, hand count ballots
There is a lot of mistrust within the state’s Republican Party related to the reliability of electronic tabulating machines. Eathorne said the flawed voting test in Laramie County created further mistrust from the public.
“This just verifies the public’s uneasiness in trusting electronic devices of any sort,” Eathorne said. “Everything from laptops to memory sticks to the tabulators themselves.”
He added there’s at least one other county — Weston County — that’s considering switching to hand-counting ballots “to ensure integrity in the outcome.”
However, Ervin said hand-counting isn’t anywhere near as reliable as the electronic tabulates.
“In my experience, hand counting has not been very accurate,” Ervin said. “Humans partaking in repetitive tasks has potential for issues. And so, personally, I would be less confident if we fully hand counted [the ballots].”
He also doubted the county would switch to a hand-counting method this close to the primary election.
“Our system and statutes are built around an electronic voting system,” Ervin said.
If the Wyoming Legislature decided in the next session to completely switch to hand-counting ballots, then county clerks would oblige, he added.
“We would follow the law,” he said.
I would like to see my last Presidential vote BALLOT for President Trump in 2016.
I guess I am at loss of why a machine needs ballots feed a certain way. Out side of the top part of ballot feed right side up. Or “special” training needed. I would say TERRIBLE design of unit.
Just more right-wing nonsense. They’re pretending to be experts regarding subjects of which they know nothing (a trait their leader, dearest trumples, shares with them). Just a bunch of right-wing wind-bagging. They should leave the clerks alone. They know their jobs.
To the freedom caucus.” Stupid is as stupid does”. (Forest Gump)
To all you people that think we should go back to hand counting. Please throw away your phone and your computer and probably your TV as these devices are lying to you.
Oh, and please disconnect yourself from the orange god you worship that started this mess as he is lying to you also.
Worrying about restoring integrity to the election process? That loss of integrity was a hoax perpetrated by the Republicans. How about eliminating the nonexistent boogieman of “rigged elections?” That boogieman was conceived by and given birth by Trump. He started babbling about rigged elections before he was nominated to run for office in 2016. His worshippers ate it up, yet not one iota of credibility has been provided to substantiate the lie.
Go back to paper ballots and hand count. No need for “volunteers”. Pay the counters and staff. $50 hour would be good wage. Have rotating 6 hour shifts. One could use jury pool system. Ballot counters could be selected 30 days in advance. As far as paying people. It time the parties pick up the expense equally for election expense. They have MORE THAN ENOUGH FUNDS to pickup the expense. They just blow the money on worthless mailers anyway
Isn’t it ironic that while Eathorne and his cronies have insinuated time and again that the 2020 elections were rigged, none of our elected GOP officials have asked for recounts in their own elections, nor have they offered to resign. Electronic counting of votes is far superior than trusting elderly election workers with vision problems or unscrupulous partisans to handle ballots after the voting is done.
So the test had equal numbers of votes for some candidates.
Did human counting of the test data show the same numbers as the machine?
If so, this is a test creation weakness, not a counting failure. And counting failures are what influences voting results.
Do it the old fashion way,,,,hand count,,,,paper ballots.
OMG, let’s have a cow when we should be supportive and finding the solution that.makes sense. Get the retest done. Find out why the issue occurred. Perhaps it was the test ballots. Don’t condem and fear monger what you don’t understand.
I am with you. With that said, the people touching these test ballots should be included in the investigation because it seems pretty weird that a test is conducted without the presence of the current Clerk?
Why would the Clerk not be present and who actually ran this test and who had opportunity to mess with outcome. We have already seen that disgruntled employees logging into systems to disable them, so it would not surprise me if this was the result of one of those situations?
Eathorne and his GOP cronies around the country continue with their efforts to not only make it more difficult to access the ballot box, but to also breed mistrust as to how the votes are counted. Voting machines are more accurate and reliable than hand-counting the ballots. These reoccurring challenges in Wyoming and elsewhere would not be happening were it not for the false allegations made by a poor loser in the 2020 election.
Exactly. Sowing distrust in our elections is rampant from far right republicans nationally and locally with little evidence of fraud. They are setting the stage for rebellion and further division when the democrats win. Our county officials are experienced, serious, competent public servants and can be trusted to manage our elections as they have always done.