Wyoming Sees Flurry Of Election Integrity Bills, But Clock Is Ticking

Wyoming election integrity warriors have been busy this legislative session, filing dozens of bills aimed at better securing the Cowboy State’s elections. But despite Republicans holding the trifecta in state government, the prospects for passage for some key proposals remain murky, with bills either stuck in the Senate president’s desk or facing the potential of Republican Gov. Mark Gordon’s veto pen.  

‘Wonderful Moment’

The Wyoming House of Representatives passed the entire slate of bills from the Election Integrity Agenda, an ambitious suite of pressing election security measures. On Feb. 12, the House passed a bill ensuring proper voter list maintenance and clean voter rolls, a proposal banning ranked choice voting in Wyoming, and another prohibiting foreign funding of ballot measures. 

Secretary of State Chuck Gray called passage of the full conservative election integrity reform agenda a “wonderful moment” for Wyoming. 

“It is so important that action has been taken to advance all of these conservative election integrity issues that the people of Wyoming want,” Gray, a Republican, said in a press release. “As the 2025 Legislative Session moves forward, I look forward to continuing to work with the Wyoming Legislature to achieve meaningful, conservative election integrity reform.” 

Other bills include bans on ballot drop boxes, ballot harvesting, and “Zuckbucks” in Wyoming’s elections, a stronger voter ID statute, and proof of citizenship and residency to register to vote. In a column earlier this year, Gray wrote that the election integrity agenda is an opportunity to forward President Trump’s America First, conservative policy reforms in a state that overwhelmingly voted for Trump.

In an interview this week with The Federalist, Gray said the proof of citizenship and residency bills are “near and dear to his heart.” 

“Only Wyomingites and only citizens should be voting in Wyoming elections,” the secretary said. 

The bill requires proof of residency and U.S. citizenship at the time of registration. The citizenship side is patterned after the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (Save Act). an extremely popular election law reform set to move in the Republican-controlled Congress. Election integrity deniers have attacked the bill with an array of falsehoods and red herrings, including that it would disenfranchise millions of women who changed their names upon marriage. 

‘Really Disappointing’

Wyoming’s version of the SAVE Act has faced resistance from the state’s top-ranking Republican. Gov. Mark Gordon last year vetoed amendments to the secretary of state’s election procedures requiring proof of residency and citizenship to register to vote. Gray said the rules followed months of work with Wyoming’s county clerks and other stakeholders. 

As of Thursday, Gray’s office said the bill continued to sit in the drawer of Senate President Bo Biteman, a Sheridan County Republican. Why? Gray said he didn’t know. Biteman did not return a call from The Federalist seeking comment. 

“It’s really disappointing that these bills haven’t been referred,” the former lawmaker said. “I’ve known the senate president for a long time, since we entered the legislature. I tried to reach out and it’s not clear.” 

Biteman did join other Senate Republicans earlier this month in killing a bill that would require law enforcement officials to check citizenship status during traffic stops and in issuing citations. 

Two bills strengthening Wyoming’s voter ID laws have finally been referred to committees. One measure would repeal the use of student ID cards as an acceptable form of identification for in-person voting. Another would repeal the use of Medicaid and Medicare insurance cards as IDs to vote. House Bill 206 requires photo identification to vote; the insurance cards do not include photos. 

“Identification depends on recognition. If you want to identify somebody it is normal to use a photograph,” said Rep. Nina Webber, R-Cody, after House passage of the bill earlier this month. “We recognize people by their faces. A Medicaid and Medicare card don’t have that.”

Opponents of the bill insist, as they always do, that some voters would be disenfranchised, particularly senior citizens who apparently only possess a Medicare card to identify themselves. 

“The only reason it passed was because there was a compromise made because there were several senior folks who were worried they were going to get disenfranchised. So, we stuck in this one sort of ID,” Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson said, as quoted by the Powell Tribune. He was referring to a previous allowance. 

Clock is Ticking

The bills banning ballot harvesting and absentee ballot drop boxes have picked up steam in the Senate and many of the record number of election integrity bills introduced remain in play, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.  But the clock is ticking on the brief session. 

A bill banning private funding in Wyoming’s elections — commonly known as “Zuckbucks” — that passed with little opposition in the House, had barely moved in the Senate as of midweek. Wyoming would join 28 states that prohibit private grants and other funding, which exploded in 2020 when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg contributed hundreds of millions of dollars for so-called safe election grants. Under the cover of Covid, the leftist Center for Tech & Civic Life distributed the grants, predominantly to leftist-led cities in swing states. Zuckbucks had a significant impact on the rigged 2020 election. 

Time is running out in the swift-moving, 40-day legislative session. Bills must be referred to a committee to have a chance on the floor. They must be reported out of committee in the second house by next Thursday to survive the session, and Friday is the last day for the committee of the whole. March 4 is the last day for final votes on bills in the second house to take up the legislation. The Senate president is responsible for moving each bill to appropriate senate committees. 

“I want to work with Sen. Biteman. We can work together to get this done, but we haven’t heard anything and that is concerning,” Gray said. 

Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.