Wyoming voters will soon be required to provide proof of residency and U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. First, however, the public will have a chance to offer feedback that could help determine some of the finer details of the new process.
In February, the Wyoming Legislature passed House Bill 156, “Proof of voter residency-registration qualifications,” before Gov. Mark Gordon let it become law without his signature.
Sponsored by Gillette Republican and former Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. John Bear, the law is set to go into effect July 1. It requires a person to be a Wyoming resident for at least 30 days before voting in an election, along with a requirement to provide proof of residency and citizenship when registering to vote.
While the law specifies what documents provide such proof, it also calls on the secretary of state to iron out the technicalities through the rulemaking process, which requires a public comment period.
“Ensuring that those who register to vote in Wyoming must provide proof of U.S. citizenship and proof of Wyoming residency is pivotal to election integrity and security for Wyoming,” Secretary of State Chuck Gray said in a statement Monday.
Gray and some Republican lawmakers have been pushing to add election security measures in Wyoming for the past several years. They maintain that proof of residency and citizenship are necessary to ensure that only Wyoming residents vote in Wyoming elections.
Instances of voter fraud remain statistically rare in Wyoming. There have been four convictions of voter fraud in Wyoming since 2000, according to a database created by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. All four cases involved U.S. citizens.
In 2024, Gray attempted to make similar changes through the rulemaking process, but Gordon rejected the rules, arguing the regulations exceeded the scope of the secretary’s legal authority.
“Unless and until the Legislature grants the Secretary of State more explicit authority allowing for rulemaking to add to those statutory requirements at the time of registration, I believe these rules are a breach of the separation of powers with the legislative branch, as indicated by the Management Council’s recommendation,” Gordon wrote in a letter at the time.
The new law, which was a top priority of Gray’s in the 2025 session, explicitly grants the secretary of state the authority.
The public comment period is open until June 20. Afterwards, it will once again be up to the governor to approve or reject the proposed rules.
Details
In many instances, a valid Wyoming driver’s license will suffice for proof of identity, residency and U.S. citizenship when registering to vote as long as it lists a Wyoming address, under Gray’s proposed rules.
When discussing the proposed rules last year, county clerks raised concerns about residents with P.O. boxes on their driver’s licenses — particularly those in Teton County — being disenfranchised.
The rules now up for consideration specify P.O. boxes in Wyoming would count as proof of residence, so long as the person lists their residential address on their voter registration application form.
As is now the case, tribal identification cards issued by either the Eastern Shoshone or the Northern Arapaho tribes, or other federally recognized tribes, will also count as proof of residency if a Wyoming address is listed.
If the applicant does not have a valid Wyoming driver’s license or a tribal ID card present at the time of application, the law specifies that they provide their driver’s license number and at least one of the following documents: a valid U.S. passport; a driver’s license or ID card issued by the federal government, any U.S. state or occupied territory; a photo identification card issued by the University of Wyoming, a Wyoming community college or a Wyoming public school; a U.S. military card; an ID card issued to a dependent of a member of the U.S. armed forces or a tribal ID card.
Under the proposed rules, those documents would also need to list a Wyoming address to constitute proof of residency.
If applicants do not have a driver’s license, they will be asked to provide the last four digits of their Social Security number along with one of the aforementioned documents.
The proposed rules also lay out a process for other instances, such as if an applicant does not have any of those forms of identification or if they lack both a Wyoming driver’s license and a Social Security number. Those situations will require other forms of documentation, such as a utility bill, bank statement or any other government document showing their name and address.
As for proof of U.S. citizenship, the rules propose mirroring the documentation already outlined in law, including a Wyoming driver’s license, Wyoming ID card, a valid U.S. passport, a certificate of U.S. citizenship, a certificate of naturalization, a U.S. military draft record or a selective service registration acknowledgement card, a consular report of birth abroad issued by the U.S. department of state or an original or certified copy of a birth certificate in the U.S. bearing an official seal.
None of those documents, however, will suffice if they indicate the person is not a U.S. citizen.
What’s next?
The proposed rules may be read here — the changes are the underlined text in the last five pages of the document.
Public comments may be sent directly to joe.rubino1@wyo.gov or via the rules system until June 20.
A public hearing has also been set for 3 p.m. June 4 at the Capitol Extension Conference Center Auditorium in Cheyenne. Members of the public may attend virtually by registering via Zoom here.
When it comes to chuck gray, the freedom caucus and the maga gop, the “election problems” they want you to somehow believe are nothing but self-inflicted injuries. Their agenda has never been to fix “election integrity”. The goal is to make voting as difficult as possible. They want to propagandize voters into losing faith in the process and into giving up our rights, so they will have absolute power and control. There will be banana republic style elections where valid opposition votes are rejected on administrative technicalities–remember 2000 and the “hanging chads” in Florida? That election truly was stolen and not by Democrats. Perhaps, if trump-ism succeeds, we will eventually have rigged elections and there will be no unbiased courts left to contest them.
Total waste of time and resources. Solution in search of a problem.
I believe anyone who is a resident of Wyoming should be allowed to vote in state elections. Residents pay taxes. Taxation without representation is un-American. Chuck Gray needs to be removed because he does not understand this founding principle.
More non-problems the do nothing GOP can pretend to “fix” that only makes everything hard for citizens of both parties.
Forty five election bills. Such a waste of our legislature and tax dollars. Wyoming is quite honest in their voting integrity as studies show. Hopefully the next session, although a budget session, will put Wyoming problems first instead of the “feel good” national agenda.
We need to remember this debacle when it comes time to vote. Hopefully we will have a better choice of candidates. If not, feel free to write someone in.
This bill being proposed states the goal is to strengthen election integrity, but there is not a problem with election integrity in Wyoming. The real goal is to make it hard to register to vote and disenfranchise large groups of voters in Wyoming. The Heritage Foundation (very conservative group) reports 4 fraudulent votes (and they provide the names of the people ) FROM 1982-2024. FORTY TWO years and 4 fraudulent votes — this bill is such a waste of money and time gaslighting a problem that does not exist.
There should be a law that requires a person to have lived in Wyoming for at least 5 years before he/she can run for office.