Wyoming
Chuck Gray Raises Alarm About Zuck Bucks Group At County Clerks’…
Secretary of State Chuck Gray is raising alarms about a private elections group that attended a meeting of Wyoming county clerks last week.
At the meeting of the Wyoming Association of County Officers held in Rock Springs, there was a booth and a staff member from the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL).
On Wednesday, he sent a letter to Wyoming’s 23 county clerks expressing his concerns.
“I was deeply troubled by the presence of CTCL at the Wyoming Association of County Officers meeting in Rock Springs last week,” Gray writes. “Despite many in the media who have claimed there is no presence by these groups in Wyoming, CTCL’s presence in Rock Springs only demonstrates that they are targeting Wyoming.”
Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese was at the meeting and said CTCL’s presence was rather innocuous. She said the group’s representative did not offer her help or any money, and appeared to be serving in a strictly informational role.
“I don’t think this girl said or had anything to do with any of us that would be out of line,” she said.
Freese also finds it interesting Gray felt the need to put out a public letter about the issue when he had already expressed concern to the clerks about CTCL being at the meeting.
“It’s a little bit surprising when he already had discussed it and we know his concerns,” she said.
What’s It About?
CTCL is connected to Meta founder Mark Zuckerburg, who gave $350 million to the organization to help with public election administration during the 2020 election.
The group used this donation to pay out $332 million in donations to provide thousands of local elections offices COVID-19 “relief grants.”
In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg said the money was intended to “support election officials with the infrastructure they need to administer the vote — including voting equipment, PPE for poll workers and hiring additional poll staff.”
The grants became colloquially known as “Zuck Bucks.”
Although the CTCL grants in the 2020 election were nominally nonpartisan, many accused the group of focusing its main efforts on areas won by President Joe Biden in battleground states to help draw a higher voter turnout, which historically tends to benefit Democrats more than Republicans.
As he also mentioned in a 2023 letter sent to the clerks, Gray believes these kinds of “deeply disturbing” grants could expose Wyoming to funding streams supported by foreign actors. He pointed out that liberal donor Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss, who lives in Wyoming, gave to groups that then gave money to CTCL.
There is no evidence CTCL spent any money in Wyoming in 2020, but Gray urged the clerks in his letter to let him know if any private groups solicit them with money to run their elections, which is legal in Wyoming.
Freese said she already receives significant information on how to run elections from various governmental groups and doesn’t believe a group like CTCL could sway her.
CTCL appears to have broadened its focus this election year, offering “Rural and Nonmetro Election Infrastructure Grants,” for more rural areas. The grants are only eligible in jurisdictions like Wyoming that haven’t banned private funding of election administration.
During the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions, bills were brought that would have banned private funding of elections in Wyoming. Neither gained much traction.
“Given the evolving tactics of groups like CTCL and their history of influencing election administration across the country, as well as Wyoming’s lack of a statutory ban on private funding of election administration, Wyoming is particularly vulnerable,” Gray writes.
Freese and Marissa Carpio, a representative of the Equality State Policy Center, said their groups had a neutral stance on these bills. Their only concern was that the legislation could inhibit private groups like Rotary clubs and schools from offering facilities to use as polling places.
“Where they worry is the cost burden on those county clerks,” Carpio said.
Influence
Zuckerburg’s actions drew a rash of criticism from Republicans like Gray alleging that he and his wife were trying to influence the final results of the election.
Democrats have pushed for more federal funding in elections for years, which are largely funded at state and local levels. The GOP has largely opposed these proposals and introduced legislation that would prohibit nonprofits from giving direct funding to election offices.
Gray himself isn’t above taking advice and influence from private groups.
A trove of emails obtained through a public records request provided to Cowboy State Daily earlier this year by watchdog group Documented show that Florida-based think tank Foundation for Government Accountability lobbied Gray on various elections and ESG (environmental, social and governance) topics in early 2023, which resulted in nearly identical legislation brought before the Legislature.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
CASPER, Wyo. — High school athletics in Wyoming could see some drastic changes in the coming years following legislative changes to the state’s education budget, the Wyoming High School Activities Association recently announced in a statement.
According to the WHSAA, Wyoming school districts are facing a projected $3.9 million shortfall in activities funding, forcing officials to consider significant cuts to high school sports and extracurricular programs.
The WHSAA shared details regarding a new “silo” funding model implemented by the Legislature, stating that the recalibrated block grant model reduced funding for student activities and extra-duty responsibilities from $46.3 million to $42.4 million, an approximately 8.4% decrease statewide.
WHSAA Commissioner Trevor Wilson said the restructuring also restricts district access to an additional $76.2 million in previously flexible funding.
“A significant portion of the [April 28 WHSAA Board of Directors] meeting was dedicated to discussing the projected funding shortfall,” Wilson wrote.
The WHSAA is weighing several strategies to address rising costs with fewer resources. Proposed changes include eliminating regional tournaments and reducing the number of teams qualifying for state events from eight to four; limiting wrestling to two classes and restricting track and field state participants to the top 16 marks; making cuts to soccer, indoor track and field, Nordic and Alpine skiing, swimming and diving, spring golf and tennis; and reducing in-person speech and debate events by half and centrally locating All-State Music events to minimize travel. The board also recommended increasing gate admission or implementing student participation fees to offset costs.
While the WHSAA release states that no plans have been finalized and the various changes are currently just possibilities, Natrona County School District 1 Board of Trustees member Mary Schmidt criticized the WHSAA’s handling of the news at Monday’s board meeting.
“I take some issues with this, [including] the sheer fact that we as Board of Trustees members have not talked about that at all,” Schmidt said. “It is not our intent and it has not been brought to us to cut our athletics or activities budget for the upcoming school year. … I take issue with them picking sports and getting the community upset and ginning them up to be upset that this is all going to be cut when that hasn’t been discussed.”
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Angela Hensley clarified that Natrona County School District 1’s athletics and activities budget saw a reduction of roughly $550,000 in the coming year’s budget, but said the local school district does not plan to cut any sports.
“Thank you, Trustee Schmidt, for saying this, because I think people are wondering — we are not planning to cut athletics and activities for next year,” Hensley said. “We do have to take a look at our entire budget as we have talked about, as we learn more about these new rules that come in.”
Related
Republished with permission from Wyoming News Now, a TV news outlet covering the Cheyenne and Casper areas.
Cheyenne City Council has introduced a temporary moratorium, or pause, on new data center construction.
“The end goal is to actually have regulations in place, to have really heavy public involvement with this with data centers,” said Councilman Mark Moody.
The proposed ordinance is not a permanent ban on data centers and would not affect data centers currently under construction.
Councilman Moody says this is a bipartisan issue.
“I just want to make this clear, I’m not against data centers. We do need them from a national security perspective,” he said.
He said there needs to be more public input and regulations regarding data centers in Cheyenne.
The ordinance would require city staff to study data center impacts such as electricity usage, electricity tariffs, closed-loop cooling systems, groundwater impacts, agricultural impacts, and land value.
Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County, reported in November 2025 that there are 12 operational data centers in Wyoming, five under construction and plans for 43 data centers announced across the state.
“There needs to be more public input with this, and also to see how many we can sustain here in this community, cause there are talks of 43, and then another day 70. How many can we sustain here?” said Councilman Moody.
The proposed moratorium will now go to the Public Services Committee on Monday, May 18 at noon in the Municipal Building.
Sheridan will play in the North Regional Tournament at Gillette, while the South Regional Tournament will be played at Rock Springs.
North Regional Tournament at Gillette:
Checking record vs. highest team in the quadrant not involved in the tie, Thunder Basin gets the #1 Northeast seed over Campbell County, because the Lady Bolts went 3-1 vs. Sheridan, whereas the Lady Camels went 2-2.
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 NE) Thunder Basin vs. (#4 NW) Jackson – 11am
(#2 NW) Natrona County vs. (#3 NE) Sheridan – 11am
(#2 NE) Campbell County vs. (#3 NW) Kelly Walsh – 1pm
(#1 NW) Cody vs. (#4 NE) Worland – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Thunder Basin/Jackson winner vs. Natrona County/Sheridan winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh winner vs. Cody/Worland winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Thunder Basin/Jackson loser vs. Natrona County/Sheridan loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Campbell County/Kelly Walsh loser vs. Cody/Worland loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
South Regional Tournament at Rock Springs:
Friday, May 15th:
(#1 SW) Laramie vs. (#4 SE) Torrington – 11am
(#2 SE) Cheyenne East vs. (#3 SW) Green River – 11am
(#2 SW) Rock Springs vs. (#3 SE) Wheatland – 1pm
(#1 SE) Cheyenne Central vs. (#4 SW) Cheyenne South – 1pm
Semi-Finals:
Laramie/Torrington winner vs. Cheyenne East/Green River winner – 3pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Rock Springs/Wheatland winner vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South winner – 5pm Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
Consolation Round:
Laramie/Torrington loser vs. Cheyenne East/Green River loser – 3pm LOSER OUT!
Rock Springs/Wheatland loser vs. Cheyenne Central/Cheyenne South loser – 5pm LOSER OUT!
Saturday, May 16th:
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
TBA vs. TBA – 10am LOSER OUT! Winner qualifies for the state tournament.
2 10am winners vs. each other – 1pm 3rd Place
TBA vs. TBA – 1pm 1st Place
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