The Joint Corporations Committee, meeting in joint interim session at the Wyoming State Capitol, heard sustained public and agency requests on election-administration topics the committee could take up during the interim. Speakers representing county clerks, the secretary of state’s office, civic groups and election volunteers urged work on voting-machine testing, absentee ballot security, voter-list maintenance, ballot retention and options for hand counts and post-election audits.

The committee heard from Mary Langford of the Wyoming County Clerk’s Association and Platte County Clerk Malcolm Irvin, who asked the committee to study four election topics the association submitted: election-equipment testing and auditing procedures; absentee-ballot security and chain of custody; election-worker and polling-location security; and voter-registration list maintenance and improvements to statewide registration capabilities.

Janet Mader, a longtime elections judge in Campbell County, urged limits on who may observe logic-and-accuracy testing and suggested that observers be county registered voters and observers only. “I think they need to be registered voters who residing in the county, and they need to be observers only, not, trying to affect what the clerk is doing,” Mader said.

Wyoming Secretary of State Marino urged continued oversight and implementation briefings on bills that passed this session. “Voter list hygiene — 318 is a wonderful bill. Very excited about it moving forward last night,” Marino said, adding the office wants to continue updates on implementation and to clarify election-testing statutes.

The secretary also raised several subjects for further study: the statutory retention schedule for ballots (he said current law references record-retention authority in section 9-2-411 and expressed a desire to place ballot-retention rules explicitly into the election code); ambiguities in the testing statute that leave unclear whether every machine or only machine types must be tested; absentee-voter ID procedures used in other states (for example, using a driver’s-license number on an inner envelope); and authentication methods for certain IDs.

Civic groups and election-integrity advocates urged measures they argued would lift public confidence. Marguerite Herman of the League of Women Voters recommended ballot-tracking and curing systems used in other states so mail voters can track delivery status and be notified when a ballot needs correction. Gail Simmons asked that any demonstration of electronic machines be data-driven and include a public demonstration to show how testing and hand counts work.

Speakers noted several bills from the session that intersect with the interim topics: House Bill 278 (voting-machine/system testing), HB217 (random-precinct hand-count audits), HB215 and HB218 (machine and process reforms), and HB318 (voter-list maintenance). Several witnesses asked the committee to continue work on items that did not finish this session or that warrant implementation oversight.

The committee chair said members would collect topic rankings from committee members and then the co-chairs would consolidate priorities for Management Council consideration.

Ending: The committee did not take formal votes on any of these interim-topic requests during the hearing. Members were asked to complete ranking forms and the co-chairs will submit a consolidated list for Management Council review.