UPDATE: This article has been updated with responses from the Laramie County Clerks Office.
CHEYENNE, Wyoming – The Wyoming Republican Party and several party members filed a lawsuit against Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee on Aug. 7, challenging the certification and use of electronic voting machines for the upcoming primary election. The lawsuit alleges Lee’s office failed to comply with Wyoming Law 22-11-104, which requires certain testing procedures for voting machines.
The plaintiffs, including Assemblymen Ben Hornok and Clarence Styvar, Laramie County Republican Party Chairman Taft Love, State Republican Party Committee member Dallas Tyrrell and Laramie County Committee candidate Kathy Scigliano, claim that the test administered on August 5 did not meet statutory requirements. The test allegedly assigned each candidate the same number of votes, contrary to the law, which requires a different number of votes for each candidate.
The Laramie County Clerk’s Office confirms receipt of a complaint from the Wyoming Republican Party and candidates Ben Hornok, Clarence Styvar, Taft Love, Dallas Tyrrell and Kathy Scigliano regarding the testing methodology of two tabulating machines used to count absentee ballots, according to a statement from Lee on the Laramie County Clerk’s Facebook page.
“No errors were encountered during the certified testing conducted and none of the complaints allege that an error occurred. The county has full confidence in the accuracy and functionality of all of our voting machines and will fully respond to all complaints and lawsuits filed,” Lee explains.
GOP observers, including Love and Tyrrell, attended the test at the Laramie County Courthouse on Aug. 5. They were required to surrender their personal cellphones before entering the testing area. According to the lawsuit, Lee failed to fix the problems despite raising concerns with Lee about the testing process.
The lawsuit also challenges the use of a random number generator to create the test ballots, saying it would not result in identical vote totals for all candidates. The plaintiffs demanded access to the computer system responsible for creating the test ballots, but Lee allegedly refused.
The lawsuit also alleges that other voting machines, specifically the Model DS200 Poll Place Scanners and Tabulators, were improperly tested on July 19 and certified despite the problems. The complaint does not provide any details about the July 19 tests.
The Wyoming Republican Party is seeking an order to ban the use of the machines in the August 20 primary election and to require alternative counting methods.
“The complaint seeks to disrupt our current primary election and compel my office to provide alternative means of counting the votes expected to be cast by more than 5,700 absentee voters in Laramie County,” Lee explains. The complaint does not identify the machines as being specifically designed for absentee voters.
“Because Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 22-11-104 requires that any voting machine to be used in a Wyoming election must be properly tested no later than two weeks before the election in which it is to be used, and because the date of the primary election is less than two weeks away, the ballot machines cannot be properly tested for use in the election,” the complaint states.
Cap City News has reached out to the Laramie County Clerk’s office. While no immediate response to questions was received, a statement regarding the complaint was posted on the Laramie County Clerk’s Facebook page.
“We are in close contact with the State Department’s certified voting machine supplier to address the GOP’s concerns about the testing methodology,” Lee explains.
