Wyoming

Chuck Gray Claims Press ‘Misleading’ Public Over Voter Residency Rules

Published

2 years ago

January 26, 2024

Chuck Gray Claims Press ‘Misleading’ Public Over Voter Residency Rules

Secretary of State Chuck Gray wasted no time accusing the press of misleading the public about his new proposed voter residency rules during a hearing at the State Capital on Friday.

“The media has published a number of articles with misleading statements that have caused confusion about what these rules do,” Gray said.

If finalized, the new rules would require people registering to vote in Wyoming to show an additional proof of residency if their identification doesn’t already show it.

Gray said it’s difficult to prove only Wyoming residents are voting in the state’s elections without this rule. Although Wyoming is overwhelmingly Republican and with very few issues of election fraud proven in the past, Gray said proving residency is pivotal to maintaining election integrity and voter security.

“One of the key questions that I hope to hear from you about today is whether that is just going to be a slogan that isn’t followed through upon, or whether it will be followed through upon with real teeth, which is what this rules does,” Gray told the audience.

There were about 100 people at Friday’s hearing and around 150 more watching live online. The majority of the public comments, in person and online, were in support of the proposed rules, many from prominent members of the Wyoming Republican Party.

Although the hearing was intended for the public to provide feedback on the proposed rules, at many instances the hearing devolved into a back-and-forth between members of the audience criticizing arguments made by others.

Illegals Voting?

Gray and many others also expressed concerns about illegal aliens voting in Wyoming elections. There have been no documented cases of this happening. Although Wyoming law already prohibits people in the country illegally to vote, Gray’s rules further clarify the point.

Laramie resident Paul Montoya and others said the recent influx of illegal immigration across the southern border should be a concern for Wyoming’s elections.

“We should be proactive in making sure there’s not a problem in Wyoming,” he said.

Sheridan political activist Gail Symons believes this is unfounded.

“The fears of mythical busses of out-of-state people showing up to register and vote is unsubstantiated both from a practical standpoint and the data,” she said.

Legislators Weigh In

There have been three cases of prosecuted election fraud since 2000 in Wyoming, according to the Heritage Foundation. Some who spoke at Friday’s hearing said they see this not as proof there’s no election fraud, but rather that Wyoming needs to tighten its voter requirements to test if more fraud is happening than what’s being reported and prosecuted.

State Reps. Tony Locke, R-Casper, and John Bear, R-Gillette, said they support the proposed rules and believe they will show if there is more election fraud in Wyoming than what is now known about.

“If we don’t know what the effect of not having these rules is, how can we possibly know whether the Legislature is going to enact statutes that will impact the voters?” Bear questioned.

A few from the public went further and made claims they know of people who are not Wyoming residents or American citizens who have successfully voted in Wyoming elections.

Overall, seven state legislators spoke at the hearing.

State Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander, was the most critical of the lawmakers about the proposed rules, saying they subvert legislative authority.

Rep. Sandy Newsome, R-Cody, agreed with Case and said Gray doesn’t have authority to do what he wants to.

“The Legislature should pass laws, not the secretary of state,” she said.

Newsome also said she is “disappointed” that Gray is bringing his rule now, and that he never discussed the proposal in any of the legislative Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee’s interim meetings in 2023. She asked Gray to wait until a 30-day durational bill is addressed during the upcoming legislative session before enacting the rules.

“This is premature on your part,” she said.

Gray pushed back, saying he did bring up his proposal during the committee’s meeting in October.

Rep. Mark Jennings, R-Sheridan, also countered on Gray’s behalf and said the same people opposing the rules also support superfluous rulemaking in other agencies.

Clerks Don’t Support

Gray noted that he took four meetings with the state’s county clerks and sent extensive emails about the proposed rules before announcing them. Earlier this month, the clerks sent a memo expressing “significant concerns” about them.

Malcolm Ervin, Platte County clerk and president of the Wyoming County Clerks’ Association, spoke against the proposed rules Friday and said working with Gray on them isn’t an endorsement.

Although he admitted to Cowboy State Daily that Gray’s rules probably won’t impact a significant number of residents, Ervin said people would be surprised to learn how many people they will affect.

Teton County Clerk Maureen Murphy mentioned how many people in Teton County routinely change residences from year-to-year because of high housing prices in that area. She said the new rules would make it more difficult for these people to vote unless they lied about their residency.

Lander Republican state Sen. Cale Case was one of the most vocal critics of the proposed rules on Friday. (Leo Wolfson, Cowboy State Daily)

Effort To Vote

Case also expressed concern the rules will suppress voter turnout. Specifically, he said some living on the Wind River Reservation, where many voters live a transient lifestyle, will have to clear significant hurdles to be able to vote. The rules also put new requirements on homeless people proving their residency.

“There’s a significant chance of harm but not much chance of benefit,” Case said.

Others supporting the rules said illegal voters “disenfranchise” the efforts of legal voters and that meeting the burden of proof to show one’s right to vote is a matter of self-responsibility, not for Gray to facilitate.

Saratoga resident Joey Correnti also said there’s nothing stopping voters rights groups from helping people prove their residency, and a few encouraged Gray to establish a robust informational campaign to inform voters about the changes being proposed less than 200 days before the primary election.

Cheyenne resident Richard Garrett encouraged Gray to consider senior citizens like his late mother, who would’ve been impacted by the new rules if she were still alive, and Ervin said his grandmother would be affected.

Gray said he will do so.

“We’re working to get that balance right, because it is a balance,” Gray said.

Ervin also worries that the rules aren’t being brought without enough time for county clerks to prepare for them in the upcoming elections, and that the changes could lead to much longer lines at polling places on Election Day.

One of the biggest concerns the clerks and others have raised about the rules is that they will require people who have a P.O. box listed on their IDs to supply an additional form of identification to prove residency. There are many driver’s licenses provided by the Wyoming Department of Transportation that only have a P.O. box listed as a form of address.

Gray said he will consider a revision to the rules that would limit them to only requiring an ID showing Wyoming residence. Ervin said the clerks would be more supportive of that.

“That would provide some advancement in ensuring only residents of the state of Wyoming can register to vote and provide a bridge to when WYDOT will be in compliance in statute,” Gray said.

But some of Gray’s supporters also urged him to push back on this, noting how proof of residency is required to get a P.O. box or a driver’s license in the first place.

Not Durational

Gray also blamed the media for its reporting of a separate legislative proposal he made last spring for a 30-day residency requirement with his proposed new rules, two measures he says are not connected.

“It’s caused a lot of this confusion what the media has reported,” Gray said.

In August, when the durational residency requirement proposal was first considered by the Corporations Committee, Ervin mentioned how the state has no laws proving definitive proof of residency and that the 30-day residency requirement wouldn’t resolve that.

“Without proof of residency to address the issue, there is still a huge hole in our state’s approach to residency,” Gray explained.

Under current law, only election judges can challenge a voter’s residency status in Wyoming.

Out-Of-Staters

A few who testified also wondered about out-of-state voters participating in Wyoming elections.

Rep. Scott Smith, R-Lingle, said he knows of “numerous” people who used out-of-state identifications to vote in the 2022 elections.

“I think that’s an important thing to stop,” he said.

It’s legal to use an out-of-state ID to vote in Wyoming, but this comes with a few stipulations. First, Wyoming law requires residents to notify WYDOT within 10 days when moving within the state. New residents have a year to get a license when moving to the state. Second, those registering to vote swear an oath that they are legal in-state residents.

Platte County Clerk Malcom Ervin testifies at a hearing about new Wyoming voter rules. (Leo Wolfson, Cowboy State Daily)

Leo Wolfson can be reached at Leo@CowboyStateDaily.com.

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Wyoming

Rivalries and Playoff Positioning Highlight Week 11 Wyoming Girls Basketball Slate

Published

12 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

Rivalries and Playoff Positioning Highlight Week 11 Wyoming Girls Basketball Slate

It’s Week 11 in the 2026 Wyoming prep girls’ basketball season. That means it’s the end of the regular season. 3A and 4A schools have their final game or games to determine seeding before the regional tournament, or if a team is locked into a position, one last chance to fine-tune before the postseason. Games are spread across four days.

WYOPREPS WEEK 11 GIRLS BASKETBALL SCHEDULE 2026

Every game on the slate is a conference matchup. Several rivalry contests are part of this week’s schedule, such as East against Central, Cody at Powell, Lyman hosting Mountain View, and Rock Springs at Green River, just to name a few. Here is the Week 11 schedule of varsity games WyoPreps has. All schedules are subject to change. If you see a game missing, please email david@wyopreps.com.

CLASS 4A

Final Score: Laramie 68 Cheyenne South 27 (conference game)

CLASS 3A

Final Score: Lyman 40 Mountain View 26 (conference game)

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CLASS 4A

Final Score: Evanston 41 Riverton 39 (conference game)

Final Score: Natrona County 42 Kelly Walsh 38 (conference game) – Peach Basket Classic

Final Score: #4 Thunder Basin 64 Campbell County 32 (conference game)

CLASS 3A

Final Score: #1 Cody 77 Worland 33 (conference game) – 5 different Fillies with a 3, and Hays led the way with 34 points.

Final Score: #2 Lander 49 Lyman 34 (conference game)

Final Score: #4 Wheatland 51 Douglas 40 (conference game)

Final Score: #5 Powell 48 Lovell 42 (conference game)

Final Score: Burns 56 Torrington 43 (conference game)

Final Score: Glenrock 78 Newcastle 30 (conference game)

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CLASS 4A

Rock Springs at #2 Green River, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

#4 Thunder Basin at #5 Sheridan, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

#1 Cheyenne East at #3 Cheyenne Central, 6 p.m. (conference game)

Jackson at Star Valley, 6 p.m. (conference game)

CLASS 3A

#3 Pinedale at Mountain View, 4 p.m. (conference game)

#1 Cody at #5 Powell, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

Buffalo at Glenrock, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

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CLASS 3A

Newcastle at Buffalo, 12:30 p.m. (conference game)

Glenrock at Rawlins, 3 p.m. (conference game)

Torrington at #4 Wheatland, 5:30 p.m. (conference game)

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Wyoming Boys 4A Swimming & Diving State Championships 2026

4A Boys State Swim Meet for 2026 in Cheyenne

Gallery Credit: David Settle, WyoPreps.com

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Wyoming

Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers

Published

24 hours ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Political storm in Wyoming as far-right activist caught handing checks to lawmakers

Controversy has engulfed Wyoming’s state legislature after a conservative activist was photographed handing checks to Republican lawmakers on the state house floor, in an incident that has highlighted intra-conservative divisions and the role of money in the Cowboy state’s politics.

The political storm started on 9 February, when Karlee Provenza, a Democratic lawmaker, took a photo showing Rebecca Bextel, a conservative activist and committeewoman for the Teton county Republican party, handing a check to Darin McCann, a Republican representative, on the legislative floor. Marlene Brady, another Republican representative, stands in the photo’s background, a similar piece of paper pinched between her fingers.

“You have a person from the richest county in the country coming down to Cheyenne to hand out checks on the house floor,” Provenza said. “I have never seen something so egregious.”

Questions around the checks were soon swirling, and answers weren’t forthcoming. When asked what Bextel gave to her, Brady told a reporter for local outlet WyoFile: “I can’t remember.”

Then Bextel herself addressed the incident. “I raised $400,000 in the last election cycle for conservative candidates, and I will be doubling that amount this year,” Bextel wrote on Facebook on 11 February. “There’s nothing wrong with delivering lawful campaign checks from Teton county donors when I am in Cheyenne.”

Since then, it has emerged that the checks came from Don Grasso, a wealthy Teton county donor, who told the Jackson Hole News and Guide that he wrote the checks for Bextel to deliver to 10 Freedom caucus-aligned politicians. Grasso said the checks were intended as campaign contributions, and were not tied to specific legislation. It is unclear how many checks were ultimately delivered, but two of four confirmed recipients include the speaker of the house, Chip Neiman, and John Bear, the former head of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus.

The Wyoming house has formed a legislative investigative committee, and the Laramie county sheriff’s office said they’d open a criminal investigation.

Bextel declined to answer questions from the Guardian. Brady, McCann and Bear did not respond to requests for comment.

Neiman said he considered the criticism a “wraparound smear campaign”. He said: “It never once crossed my mind that this was bribery.

“These legislators, myself included, are now guilty until we can prove that we’re innocent. How is that right in this country? Isn’t that a little bit backwards?”

The scandal has highlighted long-standing divisions in Wyoming’s Republican party, which in recent years has seen a growing divide between old school, more moderate conservatives and a harder-right Freedom Caucus.

Several former Republican lawmakers forcefully condemned their colleagues for accepting the checks, and a local Republican party branch called for the lawmakers’ resignations.

Ogden Driskill, a Wyoming Republican senator, told the Guardian he does not consider Bextel’s actions to be illegal, but that “just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should”.

Bextel has spent years pushing against housing mitigation fees in Wyoming, and Driskill noted that she distributed the house floor checks just days before a bill she had publicly supported was set to be heard. Bextel was registered as a member of the press, not as a lobbyist when she delivered the checks.

“Ethically and morally, it’s bankrupt to a massive degree,” Driskill said.

Neiman said that he and other legislators who received checks have supported similar bills in the past: “Bribery is paying somebody to do something they would not otherwise do.”

Nationally, the 2024 election cycle saw record-spending from the mega-wealthy, as well as dark money groups. Wyoming followed the trend, in a tense red-on-red primary season.

For those gearing up to campaign this year, Teton county, the richest in the US, and Bextel’s picturesque home turf, is an essential stop. Its extreme wealth gives it a foothold on the national level as well. Palantir chief executive Alex Karp and Donald Trump attended an annual Republican leadership fundraiser at Jackson Hole in 2024, and JD Vance attended the same one in 2025.

Bextel pulls dollars from Teton county into the Freedom Caucus side of Wyoming’s conservative split. She hosted no-press-allowed meet and greets earlier this year benefitting leading candidates for Wyoming’s governor and open US House seat.

In an interview with the Open Range Record, a media network she co-founded, Bextel said controversy around the checks was solely because she was making “even playing field” in Wyoming against the state’s more moderate Republicans, who she calls “George Soros” candidates. She said that she will be sure to keep raising money – just away from the legislative floor.

“I guess I’m gonna ask all the gentlemen and gentleladies to step outside the Capitol while I hand them a check,” Bextel said. “Let me be clear: I’m doubling down.”

But it’s not just wealthy local donors putting their weight behind the factions. Last election cycle, out of state groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on anonymous and often inaccurate mailers.

“These actors, especially from the far right, they like to push the bounds of the norms,” said Rosa Reyna Pugh, an organizing and advocacy consultant at Western States Center, an Oregon-based non-profit focused on democracy in the western United States. “They like to see what policies they can kind of push, and see where they can play a piece,” Reyna Pugh said.

While Neiman and Driskill fight politically, they do agree on one thing: summer will bring an expensive and brutal campaign season.

“You’re going to see more dark money than you’ve ever seen. We’ve done absolutely nothing to enforce it. Our secretary of state has not even made a slight attempt to deal with it,” Driskill said. “You’re going to see lots and lots of outside money and I think you’re seeing it on both sides.”

As national questions swirl around pay-to-play politics and profiteering in the Trump administration, Provenza wants better for the Cowboy State.

“We should not be aligning ourselves with how the federal government is conducting itself or how federal elections conduct themselves,” Provenza said. “We owe something far better and more honest to the people of Wyoming than that.”

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Wyoming

Wyoming man reaches plea deal to avoid jail time in wolf-abuse case

Published

2 days ago

February 25, 2026

Press Room

Wyoming man reaches plea deal to avoid jail time in wolf-abuse case

A Sublette County man who captured and brought an injured wolf into a bar in February 2024 has struck a deal with prosecutors that could keep him out of jail, reports WyoFile.

A signed plea agreement filed with the Sublette County District Court and acquired by WyoFile on Wednesday afternoon means that Cody Roberts, 44, would likely no longer face trial. It had been set to begin March 9.

Under the deal, Roberts withdraws his earlier not guilty plea and changes that plea to guilty or no contest for felony cruelty to animals.

The deal calls for a prison sentence of 18 months to two years that would be suspended in favor of 18 months of supervised probation and a $1,000 fine. Additionally, agreed-upon conditions of his probation include: no hunting or fishing; no alcohol, presence at bars or liquor stores; and a requirement that Roberts follow recommended addiction treatment.

As part of the deal, the parties are asking that a “pre-sentence investigation report” be ordered by the court.

Roberts allegedly acquired a wolf by striking it with a snowmobile, leaving it “barely conscious” on Feb. 29, 2024. Photos and video from that night showed him posing for pictures with the animal and even kissing it. The wolf’s behavior suggests that it was gravely injured, according to biologists who’ve reviewed video of the muzzled animal while it was prone and barely moving on the floor of the Green River Bar.

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department initially handled the incident, issuing Roberts a $250 fine for possession of warm-blooded wildlife. The state agency declined to seek stiffer penalties or jail time, and Game and Fish officials maintained that predatory animals, including wolves, were exempted from felony animal cruelty laws.

Sublette County law enforcement officials disagreed. In August, prosecutor Clayton Melinkovich convened a grand jury that indicted Roberts for felony animal cruelty. That crime could have put Roberts in jail for up to two years, though his plea agreement averts mandatory time behind bars as long as he successfully completes probation.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

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