CHEYENNE -- Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, stood on the Wyoming Senate floor Thursday morning and told her colleagues that the state's county clerks were afraid -- not of election fraud, but of overblown calls for election reform.
"I think what they have experienced over the last six years is fear," Nethercott said during debate on House Bill 85, which would have required enhanced record-keeping, public observation and formal objection procedures during post-election ballot audits.
Opponents of the bill characterized it as overkill that could lead to clerk intimidation.
"I know that they are afraid to speak directly. I think they've shown more courage with this bill than they have with others. Because there is retaliation," Nethercott said, urging senators to reject what she described as a national wave of election integrity politics that has washed into Wyoming despite the state's clean track record.
"The fact is we can continue to perpetuate the storm we are trying to avoid," she said. "That we didn't create, but national rhetoric did."
She told senators that county clerks' willingness to accept amendments to the bill should not be confused with support for it.
"Enough is enough," Nethercott said. "Pandering to this belief that our elections are not secure -- and they are secure, thanks to our county clerks. They do not support this bill. Vote no on this bill."
She challenged her colleagues to "show the level of courage and discretion to rise above that populism, to rise above that public perception, and just do what's right."
The Senate obliged. HB 85 failed on a decisive vote, marking the second bill inspired by the troubled 2024 general election in Weston County to die in the chamber this week. House Bill 86, which would have allowed the Secretary of State to file formal complaints seeking the removal of county clerks, died 2-3 in the Senate Corporations Committee on Monday.
Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, argued for the bill, reminding senators that the chamber had already adopted two amendments to address clerks' concerns -- one limiting the number of observers allowed in the room and another addressing ballot security.
"To say that the clerks are opposed to it, I don't think that's accurate considering the action that this chamber has taken to approve the bill, to make sure it's functional and can be administered by the clerks, and to ensure that the secrecy of the ballots is guaranteed," Boner said.
He read from a letter sent by the County Clerks Association that described HB 85 as "a policy decision" for lawmakers, and which said the bill would be harmful without the amendments -- amendments Boner noted the Senate had already approved.
Boner acknowledged that Wyoming's elections are strong but said that public confidence had been eroded by forces beyond the state's control.
"We don't have the problems you see throughout the country," Boner conceded. "But part of being a confident professional is continuing to look for ways to improve upon the existing system."
He described the bill as "a modest adjustment" and said senators needed to acknowledge that confidence in elections "has been eroded because of national issues. We have to acknowledge that and counter that and react to that."
Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, who chairs the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, opened debate with a blunt assessment.
"Mr. President, your county clerks are back and they've had their Wheaties," Case said.
He told the Senate that Wyoming's clerks "run the best elections in the country by any measure, any measure," and that they had been battered by an unprecedented volume of election legislation.
"For the past three years they've been browbeaten and knocked down with more election-related bills that we passed than have existed in the previous 90 years," Case said. "I'm telling you, this is not one of them. And I'm really proud of them for standing up, and I stand with them, to ask you to kill this bill today."
Sen. Mike Gierau, D-Jackson, told the chamber clerks across western Wyoming opposed the bill.
"I heard from my clerk last night, again this morning, and clerks from around the western part of the state," Gierau said. "They're firmly against this bill."
He offered one of the sharpest lines of the debate.
"We've had more election integrity bills brought in this Legislature than we've had election irregularities since statehood," Gierau said. "Message is -- the system works."
He pointed to the very Weston County episode that inspired the bill as proof the existing safeguards are adequate.
"Even in the county that another speaker mentioned where there were some irregularities, the system worked," Gierau said. "The system worked at the canvassing board level and corrections were made."
Gierau then recalled his own years volunteering in his local election office, where he and a minister's wife -- representing opposite political parties -- sat alone in a room and counted absentee ballots.
"We were the only ones in a room who opened ballots who knew the names of the people who voted," he said. "We took that very seriously. Our clerk took it very seriously."
"The system, Mr. President, works," Gierau said. "Vote for the system that works. Vote against this bill."
Secretary of State Chuck Gray, whose office championed the legislation, issued a sharp rebuke after the vote.
"The failure of HB 85 is very disappointing for our state, because this bill was extremely important for ensuring transparency and accountability," Gray told Cowboy State Daily. "And it's just another example of the Senate opposing common sense election integrity bills."
Gray pointed directly to Weston County Clerk Becky Hadlock's conduct as justification for the bill, saying HB 85 was crafted "specifically regarding the Weston County Clerk's submittal of a false post-election audit to our office."
"It is extremely disturbing that a majority of the State Senate opposes these commonsense election integrity improvements," Gray said.
Sen. Taft Love, R-Cheyenne, acknowledged on the Senate floor that his opposition would catch colleagues off guard.
"This might come as a surprise to some in the room," Love said, "but I'm going to be against this bill."
Love has been a central figure in Laramie County's own election controversy. He discovered that state-mandated tests on voting machines had not been conducted in compliance with statute ahead of the last election, reported it within 24 hours to the county attorney, and worked through the legal process to remedy the problem before the election proceeded.
That history, Love said in a follow-up interview with Cowboy State Daily, had earned him a reputation as an election integrity champion -- making his opposition to HB 85 all the more notable.
"A lot of people see me as a champion, being a champion of tighter election integrity stuff, and I am," Love said. "And I do want to help fix some of that. I want to look for better solutions and more opportunities. And I saw a few things that we could do better inside of that system. But the system we have works."
On the floor, Love told senators the bill's core problem was operational, not philosophical.
"If you clutter that room with other people that create chaos or issue in that room, then those people are less likely to be successful in accomplishing the outcome that's desired for the public," Love said.