Wyoming

Wyoming county clerks push back against Gray’s ballot drop box stance – WyoFile

Published

10 months ago

January 23, 2025

Wyoming county clerks push back against Gray’s ballot drop box stance – WyoFile

CHEYENNE—A disagreement between Wyoming’s state and local election officials over ballot drop boxes came to a boil Wednesday at the Capitol as lawmakers debated prohibiting their use in state statute.

Wyoming’s county clerks have utilized drop boxes for decades, long before they took on controversy in the 2020 election, thanks in large part to the film “2,000 Mules.”

The film largely rested on the premise that ballot drop boxes were used in widespread voter fraud. Since then, the film’s distributor apologized and pulled it from its platform, and Dinesh D’Souza, the film’s director, also apologized and admitted that part of the film’s analysis was “on the basis of inaccurate information.”

Nevertheless, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray continues to push for an end to drop box use in Wyoming.

“This should come as no surprise to anyone in the room, but I am a huge supporter of this bill,” Gray told the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee on Wednesday as it considered House Bill 131, “Ballot drop boxes-prohibition.”

Indeed, Gray ran for office in 2022 on a promise to ban ballot drop boxes. Wednesday he reminded the committee of that, harkening back to a “very, very vigorous primary,” wherein drop boxes were “the defining issue.”

Gray also reiterated his opinion Wednesday that state law does not allow for ballot drop boxes.

According to state law, “Upon receipt, a qualified elector shall mark the ballot and sign the affidavit. The ballot shall then be sealed in the inner ballot envelope and mailed or delivered to the clerk.”

Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, responded to Gray’s comments with a question.

“It sounded like you accused every county clerk who had drop boxes of breaking the law,” Yin said. “If that is the case, and you think that they diluted your power, because if that’s the case, why didn’t you file suit against them?”

Gray blamed Wyoming’s attorney general for declining “to take any action on it,” before Yin pressed him once more.

“Just to make it very clear, your position is that the country clerks broke the law?” Yin asked.

“I do not believe ballot drop boxes are authorized,” Gray responded.

A voter casts her ballot in the Sweetwater County primary election on Aug. 20, 2024. (Angus M. Thuermer Jr./WyoFile)

Sixteen county clerks attended the meeting, including Platte County Clerk Malcolm Ervin, who serves as president for the County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming.

“It’s unfortunate that the secretary would allude or insinuate that somehow these counties have violated the law or their oath,” Ervin told the committee. “That’s a serious insinuation.”

Ervin also pushed back on Gray’s repeated claims that the clerks’ interpretation of state law as being permissive to drop boxes was “strained” and only came about during the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s ironic that the word gaslighting was used by the secretary, because that’s exactly what he’s trying to do to you here,” Ervin said.

“He says the use of ballot drop boxes and this interpretation of the county clerks came about because of a strained interpretation in 2020,” Ervin said. “Despite [the clerks] having told the secretary that’s not true a number of times, he continues to propagate that untruth.”

The clerks association does not have a stance on the bill, Ervin added.

“What we want to do is offer facts when you make that decision,” he said.

Part of Gray’s argument against the drop boxes has been that it violates the section of the election code that requires uniformity.

“If you have a different system for each county in these races, then you don’t have a uniform system,” Gray said. “And that is problematic in terms of running a uniform statewide election.”

The committee voted 11-1 to pass the bill with two amendments, one of which came at the request of the clerks. Yin was the lone opposing vote.

How we got here

In June, Gray sent a letter to all 23 county clerks, urging them to ditch ballot drop boxes ahead of the absentee voting period, arguing Wyoming law does not permit them. Gray also announced in the letter he would rescind several directives issued by former Secretary of State Ed Buchanan related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the rescinded directives did not involve ballot drop boxes.

“We hold that the use of ballot drop boxes as a method of ballot delivery is safe, secure and statutorily authorized,” the clerks’ association wrote in its response to Gray.

Ultimately, the seven counties — Albany, Carbon, Converse, Fremont, Laramie, Sweetwater and Teton — that provided ballot drop boxes in 2022 did so again in 2024.

Gray announced his intent to ask lawmakers to ban ballot drop boxes in state law at a December press conference.

Rep. Chris Knapp (R-Gillette) stands on the House floor during the 2024 budget session. (Ashton J. Hacke/WyoFile)

Committee colloquy

Rep. Chris Knapp, a Freedom Caucus Republican from Gillette, is the main sponsor of HB 131.

“In our statute, there is no such thing as a drop box. It’s not defined in our statute, and so this bill basically makes it clear that returning a ballot gets hand delivered to the clerk,” Knapp told the committee.

As lawmakers discussed the bill, Rep. Gary Brown, R-Cheyenne, asked the clerks what section of state statute “grants you the right to use the drop boxes?”

Ervin pointed to the election code that specifies ballots shall be “delivered to the clerk.”

“That’s been the interpretation of the county clerks for at least 30 years, if not longer, and that’s been shared by a number of secretaries, one of whom is now a district court judge,” Ervin said, referring to Buchanan.

Several other clerks testified, including Lisa Smith of Carbon County, who described the security measures involved with her office’s drop box.

Since 2016, Smith said the drop box has provided a way for residents to drop off ballots as well as other items like treasurer payments. But her office is the only one that has a key or access to the inside of the drop box.

“It’s adjacent to the building. We have four cameras with two separate security systems, and all recorded footage is reviewed daily,” Smith said. “So anything that is captured, it’s not a 24-hour running tape, it’s motion censored. So it’s recording when there’s motion, even if it’s a deer. So that footage is actually reviewed by the county clerk daily, and a log is kept.”

That footage is also backed up by the county’s IT department and the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office, Smith said.

“We don’t even really advertise that a ballot drop box is available, but people are used to it because it’s been happening for quite some time,” Smith said.

Converse County Clerk Karen Rimmer said her office’s decision to use a ballot drop box “was strictly for the benefit of the voters who live there, the people that elected me to be their county clerk and conduct the election on their behalf.”

Rimmer said she also sought the advice of her county attorney, who did not share Gray’s interpretation of state law.

Fremont County Clerk Julie Freese told the committee she previously emailed Gray, inviting him to Lander to see the county’s drop box for himself.

Freese said she suggested they look at the security footage together and “collaborate on how to better do this if you think it isn’t adequate.

“I did not receive a response at all — at all. Not even ‘I don’t have time, I don’t want to see it.’ Nothing. Not one thing,” Freese said.

Later in the meeting, Gray said he didn’t respond to Freese because he’s long maintained that he does not see the drop boxes as statutorily authorized.

Rep. Steve Johnson, R-Cheyenne, asked Freese if she ever considered having the clerk’s office open 24/7 during the election in order to avoid having a drop box.

“Clerks spent a lot of time at the courthouse. I will tell you that. That’s not very far off that we’re not almost there 24/7” Freese said.

Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee provided some numbers for the committee to consider.

Thirty-six percent of Laramie County voters in the 2024 general election, for example, cast their ballot by returning it to the clerk via drop box, Lee said.

“To bring this a little closer to home, nearly a third of the 2024 general election ballots that were delivered in the drop box were from constituents of Representative Brown, Johnson and Lucas,” Lee added.

The three Cheyenne lawmakers are members of the committee.

When Rep. Ann Lucas asked how many ballots were delivered late by the United States Postal Service, Lee said “they’re still coming in.”

Amendments

While the clerks’ association did not take a position on the bill, Ervin said there were six areas in the bill where the clerks could use clarification.

If a ballot is hand delivered to another county office, for example, could the clerk’s office accept the ballot? Would a drop box within the clerk’s office be permissible? If a ballot is dropped into a clerk’s general business box, would there be a remedy available to the clerks to contact that voter? Can a private courier, such as FedEx, be used to mail an absentee ballot? Would the prohibition apply to mail ballot elections for special districts?

And can a ballot be hand delivered to a sworn election judge?

The committee addressed just one of those concerns by specifying that only USPS could be used to mail absentee ballots.

Lawmakers also amended the bill to allow voters to hand deliver ballots to municipal clerks, as suggested to the committee by Joey Correnti, a podcaster and executive director of Rural Wyoming Matters.

The bill will now be debated by the entire House.

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Wyoming

Cowboys out-shoot Cal State Fullerton for 92-82 home win Saturday

Published

10 hours ago

November 9, 2025

Press Room

Cowboys out-shoot Cal State Fullerton for 92-82 home win Saturday

LARAMIE, Wyo. — The University of Wyoming Men’s Basketball team advances to 2-0 after besting Cal State Fullerton 92-82 Saturday. The Pokes and the Titans shot at a near identical efficiency from the field, but it was the three ball that gave Wyoming the upper hand.

The Pokes and the Titans shot 44% and 43% from the field, respectively. While the Pokes were much less efficient than the Titans from the charity stripe, Wyoming balled out from three. There, they shot 38% as a team, while Cal State Fullerton shot just 18%.

Wyoming’s Naz Meyer continues to prove he belongs, as he led the Pokes in scoring and was second on the team with rebounds with 18 and 5. Guard Demarion Dennis was close behind with 16. Khaden Bennet rounds out the list of Pokes scoring in double digits with 15.

“So many good things that we did tonight and tip of the cap to Fullerton, as they came ready to play,” Wyoming Head Coach Sundance Wicks told UW Athletics post-game. “We have to keep proving we will be a hard team to play against. They got us in transition, and their pace had us on our heels in the first half. But we won the Possession game by 10 and that’s winning basketball.”

Leland Walker versus Cal State Fullerton Nov. 8, 2025 (Garrett Grochowski, Oil City News)

Leland Walker, who joins Wyoming from Florida Atlantic, shared the wealth with a team-high six assists. All in all, all but two Pokes got points on the board for Wyoming.

The Titans jumped to an early 5-0 lead as the game began, keeping the Cowboys without any field goals for the first three minutes. It was a layup from Walker that got the Pokes their first bucket of the afternoon.

Dennis fueled the Pokes offense while they crawled their way back up to even with the Titans, finally tying the game 7-7 just under the 16-minute mark in the half. Titans Joshua Ward and Jaden Henderson kept the score close until Wyoming jumped to a game-high 10-point lead with 7:53 left in the half.

It was ultimately Wyoming’s three-point game that gave them the advantage, especially in the second half. In the first, the Pokes were just 4-15 from three. They drained eight more on 15 attempts after the break.

Missed free throws from the Pokes helped the Titans stay in the game as well. Wyoming was just 59% from the stripe to Cal State Fullerton’s 72%. Regardless, any Titan run was quickly snuffed-out by Wyoming’s well-rounded offense.

The Pokes built a sustainable five-point lead going into crunch time and drained the free throws Fullerton drew trying to get last-minute possessions, fluffing the lead to the game’s final 92-82 box score.

The Cowboys will next face Austin Peay State University Tuesday, Nov. 11 at 6:30 p.m. in Laramie. For more information, see the Cowboys’ schedule here.

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Abou Magassa versus Cal State Fullerton Nov. 8, 2025 (Garrett Grochowski, Oil City News)

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Wyoming

Wyoming Family Bags Five Huge Mule Deer In One Incredible Season

Published

1 day ago

November 8, 2025

Press Room

Wyoming Family Bags Five Huge Mule Deer In One Incredible Season

If there is one lesson to be taken away from a Wyoming family’s magnificent mule deer hunting season, it’s that putting in the work scouting an area ahead of time can pay off big time.

Ryan and Jannette Hansen — along with their sons Tanner, 17, Brock, 15 and Parker, 13 — all shot huge bucks in the same southwest Wyoming deer hunt area.

The family lives in Mountain Home in Uinta County, and spending time outdoors has been a way of life for them. Ryan and Jannette both grew up hunting.

The couple also has two adult sons that have left home and were also raised as avid hunters.

But even amid such a legacy, the Hansens’ 2025 deer hunting season was exceptional.

Ryan told Cowboy State Daily that it partly came down to luck, and sheer tenacity while hunting.

However, he credits the family putting in the work ahead of time. Once they drew tags for the hunt area, they spent months scouting it.

They put in countless hours getting to know the terrain, hiking all over the place, observing deer’s movements, and picking out which bucks they wanted to go after once the hunting season started.

“It wasn’t just a case of, ‘Hey, let’s go drive down the road and see if we can shoot a deer,’” he said.

“We really put in the work ahead of time. We put in the effort, and we were rewarded and blessed for our efforts,” Ryan added.

Parker Hansen got this mule deer buck during a family hunting trip in southwest Wyoming. (Courtesy Ryan Hansen)

One Heck Of A First Deer

Their hunt area “has it all” in terms of terrain and deer habitat, Ryan said.

Vast sage flats, rugged canyons, thick timber, mountain slopes; it’s all there, and the deer thrive in it, he said.

The family started hunting there during the September archery season but didn’t get any deer.

Mule deer are notoriously difficult to hunt with a bow, Ryan said.

“We had a lot of failed stalks, and a couple of missed shots,” he said.

“Anybody that kills a mule deer with a bow is definitely a stud in my book. In all of our books,” he added.

The rifle hunting season ran from Oct. 15 to Oct. 31, and the Hansens took full advantage of it.

Parker got the first buck, on opening day of rifle season.

He made a great shot at 463 yards, and it was his first deer ever.

When asked by Cowboy State Daily how he plans to follow up getting a big buck as his first deer, Parker gave a simple answer.

“Get a bigger deer,” he said.

Parker’s buck was at the bottom of a steep canyon.

“That was definitely a hard pack out. It was literally straight up and out of that canyon,” gaining about 700 feet in elevation, Ryan said.

Tanner Hansen got this mule deer buck during a family hunting trip in southwest Wyoming. (Courtesy Ryan Hansen)

One Buck After Another

Jannette shot her buck the next day, at 250 yards. Packing that deer out was easier than Parker’s buck had been but still challenging, Ryan said.

“I’m glad I had Tanner, he’s my pack horse,” he said.

Tanner told Cowboy State Daily that packing out big game animals comes naturally to him.

“It’s something I love to do, I’m a hiker,” he said.

The day that Brock dropped his buck didn’t start out so well.

“He woke up sick, throwing up,” Ryan said.

Brock still insisted on going hunting. As the morning progressed, he started feeling a little better.

“When we stopped for lunch, he got worse again,” Ryan said.

Jannette considered taking him home. But on the drive out they spotted a nice buck, which disappeared into some timber.

They decided to go after it. Ryan practically had to carry Brock because his son was so weakened by sickness.

But Brock was still excited to get the opportunity. They found the buck again and everything came together when Brock made a 160-yard shot.

He told Cowboy State Daily that the adrenaline rush of getting a chance at such a quality buck helped him forget his illness for a short while.

“It was because he was so big,” Brock said.

The family returned home, and Tanner and Ryan went back out by themselves.

They hunted all day with no luck. As evening settled in, they were high on a ridge when Tanner finally spotted a buck he wanted to go after, far below.

“He bombed off the top of that ridge and went right after him (the buck),” Ryan said.

Ryan went back to the truck and drove to where he knew Tanner would probably come out after pursuing the deer.

“It was about 10 miles of driving to get back to where he was,” Ryan said.

Tanner tracked the buck, and when it jumped from cover, he made a 250-yard shot.

Father and son packed the deer out in the dark, with headlamps to light their way.

Jannette Hansen got this mule deer buck during a family hunting trip in southwest Wyoming. (Courtesy Ryan Hansen)

A Bittersweet Ending

Only Ryan’s deer tag was left unfilled. The rest of the family returned for the weekend and they hunted together, but to no avail.

With the season coming to an end and his family back home, Ryan headed out for the last couple of days with a good family friend.

They moved to a different section of the hunt unit, and when Ryan’s opportunity finally came, he dropped his buck with a 150-yard shot.

The deer hunting season that is sure to become a family legend was finally over.

“I was relieved that we were done. But kind of sad at the same time. It was a culmination of everything we had done,” Ryan said.

Brock Hansen got this mule deer buck during a family hunting trip in southwest Wyoming. (Courtesy Ryan Hansen)

A Freezer Full Of Venison

Jannette told Cowboy State Daily that she’s immensely proud of her family’s hunting accomplishment, and she doesn’t take living in Wyoming for granted.

“My nieces and nephews live in the city, and they don’t even go outside,” she said.

“Living in Wyoming is such a huge blessing in and of itself, for sure. It was a blessing for us to go out as a family and get all five deer,” she added.

The boys decided to get European mounts of their bucks. That being, a simple trophy mount, with just the animal’s cleaned skull and antlers.

Ryan and Jannette plan to have a taxidermist do full shoulder mounts of their bucks, together on a double pedestal.

“It will be a ‘his and hers’ double buck taxidermy mount,” Ryan said.

For the family, the hunt isn’t just about the trophies and bragging rights. Hunting is still about being solidly connected to the time-honored tradition of providing themselves with fresh venison.

“Those deer don’t go to waste. We eat every bit of them,” Ryan said.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.

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