Clerk resigns amid election controversy — Tooman resigns, Green appointed interim ahead of primary
Less than three weeks before Wyoming's Aug. 18 primary election, Weston County Clerk James Michael Tooman resigned Tuesday, saying the growing controversy surrounding his administration of the election had become a distraction that threatened public confidence in the voting process. His resignation was accepted by the Board of Weston County Commissioners on July 29.
In addition to his resignation, Tooman also withdrew from the Weston County Clerk primary election race, leaving Deputy County Clerk Amber Green as the only candidate on the primary ballot.
During a special meeting July 29, the commissioners unanimously accepted Tooman's resignation before appointing Green as acting county clerk until the statutory process to permanently fill the vacancy is completed. Commissioners also adopted Resolution 2026-21, officially declaring the office vacant and directing the Weston County Republican Party Central Committee to submit up to three nominees for the board to consider.
The appointment marks the second change in leadership of the clerk's office in less than four months.
Commission Chairman Nathan Todd acknowledged the timing of the resignation could hardly have been worse. The coming election forced the Weston County Republican Party to initiate a quickly moving process, including a two-day timeline, to solicit individuals interested in the clerk position, according to information from Kari Drost, the Weston County Republican Party chairwoman.
"I know the public ... has concern about the clerk's office and handling everything, and this is a pretty terrible time for this to be happening again," Todd said.
He expressed confidence in Green and the existing staff while asking residents to be patient as the office prepares for early voting.
"I know Amber, if she gets appointed here, surely is capable, and I believe her staff is capable of doing what needs done in that office," Todd said. "I do say that lines might get long over the next several weeks because there's early voting going on and all the other duties of the clerk's office. I hope everybody has patience."
Commissioner Garrett Borton echoed those sentiments before commissioners unanimously appointed Green.
"I feel a repeat of the actions that we've been going through here recently, but I am just as confident with Amber sitting in that position with those duties as I was the first round," he said.
Following her appointment by the commissioners, Green was the only individual to submit her name for the interim clerk position to the Weston County GOP who held a meeting on July 30. The commissioners are expected to finalize Green’s appointment at the board’s meeting on Aug. 4 as she is the only candidate sent forward by the GOP.
Decision came Tuesday morning
Speaking with the News Letter Journal on July 29, Tooman said he entered work Tuesday with no plans to resign.
"What triggered me to quit, I went in yesterday, had zero intention," he said.
Instead, he said several developments Tuesday morning caused him to reconsider.
"The basic reason why I pulled out was, quite bluntly, to remove a target from the opposition," Tooman said. "People want Amber in. I don't feel it's against Mike Tooman. They're showing their frustration because they didn't get the person that they wanted."
Tooman said criticism surrounding election preparations, combined with growing political division in the community, convinced him his continued service would only prolong the controversy.
"I stay in, I become a lodestone," he said. "All these people against me because I am not Amber. This is going to keep going on and on."
Rather than becoming the center of attention weeks before the election, Tooman said, he believed stepping aside gave the county its best opportunity to move forward.
"This is not helping the county," he said. "We need a good election."
Tooman said officials with the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office encouraged him to remain in office, but he ultimately concluded that resigning would better serve voters. He noted that the office assured him that they would assist Green in any way to ensure a good election.
"If Amber has a chance to make this happen," he said, "we can move forward."
He described Green as a dedicated employee who works hard and said he believes she will receive support from election officials across Wyoming.
Questions over election equipment
Much of the controversy centered on work performed inside the clerk's office several days before the county's scheduled public logic and accuracy test.
On July 27, Newcastle resident Dana Mann-Tavegia posted on Facebook that she had been contacted by an individual inside the courthouse who reported seeing Tooman working behind closed doors with election tabulation equipment and two members of the Weston County Republican Central Committee on July 24. On Monday, prior to making her post, Mann-Tavegia went to the courthouse to investigate the claims she heard and found the voting equipment behind closed doors with Tooman and one of the central committee persons previously mentioned.
Mann-Tavegia wrote that, after questioning Tooman, he told her he needed assistance because the office was understaffed.
She acknowledged the individual helping was a trained election judge but argued that involving candidates or political party officials in election preparations created the appearance of impropriety. It was noted specifically that the individual was not only on the ballot herself but that her husband is as well.
"I do not believe candidates have any place working with the voting tabulation machines before, during, after an election," Mann-Tavegia wrote. "I stand by that."
She called on the clerk and Republican Party officials to publicly explain what had occurred.
Later that day, another lengthy Facebook post by Jill Pischke questioned the handling of the clerk's office and repeated concerns about transparency surrounding election equipment and the upcoming election. She tied the situation to the Wyoming Freedom Caucus and the local GOP’s support and affiliation with the group of legislators.
“From the FC group that is championing the election integrity win over the last clerk, why is the new clerk and 2 current GOP committee women (also FC) practicing on the voting machines behind closed doors?” she questioned. “Isn’t that illegal? There was no Democrat invited or present.”
She further questioned if there was something bigger going on.
“Especially with the high profile elections where Republican candidates are running against FC backed candidates?” Pischke said.
Those posts quickly generated widespread discussion on social media and became the focus of conversations throughout the community.
Officials explain election preparations
Tooman said the social media posts mischaracterized routine election preparations.
He explained that the clerk's office was simultaneously handling year-end financial responsibilities, resetting county accounting systems, rolling payroll forward and assisting a steady stream of customers.
"The clerk's office was buried," he said.
Because preparing voting equipment requires two people to reduce the possibility of mistakes, Tooman said he asked longtime election judge Ann Slagle to assist him.
Slagle is one of the GOP members mentioned in both Mann-Tavigia’s and Pischke’s posts. She is currently running for a precinct committee woman position and her husband, Allen Slagle, is seeking a seat on the board of county commissioners.
"I needed help," he said. "You cannot realistically set up voting machines by yourself. You will make errors."
He said he selected Slagle because she was legally qualified to assist with election preparations, had previous election experience and was someone he trusted.
"I didn't think about any of the political ramifications," Tooman said. "I thought about someone who was qualified."
Slagle confirmed she spent most of Friday helping prepare the county's tabulators for Tuesday's public logic and accuracy test.
"What we basically did, we ran the same test of the machines," Slagle said.
The work involved testing tabulators assigned to Newcastle, Upton, Osage and absentee ballots before resetting them for the official public test.
The pair returned Monday to finish preparing the county's voting equipment before the scheduled public test on Tuesday, July 28. Following the resignation, that testing was postponed.
Both Tooman and Slagle emphasized that no actual election ballots were present during the work and that only test ballots were used.
Love: Nothing improper, but optics mattered
Susan Love, who said she was present in the clerk's office for part of the work while helping develop an election judge handbook for Weston County, said she never believed anything improper was taking place.
"The meeting ‘behind closed doors’ was innocent; I have no doubt," Love said in an email to the News Letter Journal. "But the optics were a huge liability in the hyper-sensitive environment of Weston County."
Love said she remains uncertain whether Tooman and Slagle were simply conducting practice logic and accuracy tests or working through machine programming because she heard both descriptions during the controversy.
"I do not know still if Ann and Mike were just running a practice machine test or if programming was taking place," she said. "I've heard both and don't understand."
Although she did not question anyone's motives, Love said she quickly became concerned about how the situation would be perceived by the public.
Because of that concern, she said, she urged Tooman to postpone the scheduled testing and instead have the machines cleared and reprogrammed under outside supervision.
"Because of the dilemma, I urged Mike to reschedule testing," Love said. "I thought the machines should be cleared and reprogrammed by someone from the Secretary of State's Office and someone recommended by the Clerks Association. Public observation should be arranged for this programming."
Love said complete transparency had become more important than simply completing the work.
"It is imperative that the voters of Weston County see how the sausage is made — good or bad," she said. "And that every effort is made to quell concerns of all the voters in Weston County."
Calls for state oversight
Love said she was also aware that concerns had expanded beyond Weston County, sharing an email with the News Letter Journal from Crook County Republican Party Chairman Mark Koep.
On July 29, he distributed an email to party members saying his organization had contacted the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office requesting election monitors to oversee ballot handling and logic and accuracy testing in Weston County.
“We are writing to inform you of a rapidly developing election administration crisis in neighboring Weston County. Because Crook and Weston counties share key legislative seats, most notably Senate District 1, what happens in Newcastle directly impacts who represents us in Cheyenne,” he said.
Koep argued that election administration in Weston County could affect representation for Crook County voters. He noted that the 2022 Senate District 1 race received 6,388 primary votes across the entire district.
“Crook County accounts for 45.6%(2,912 votes), Campbell County 37.5% (2,393 votes), and Weston County 17.0% (1,083 votes),” Koep said. “In a tightly contested race, any compromised or uncertified tally from Weston County's 17% share directly threatens to override the true outcome for Crook County voters. In races this tight, election integrity in our neighboring county is not just their business; it is our business.”
The email stated that the Crook County Republican Party would monitor whether Weston County met statutory deadlines for public logic and accuracy testing and urged the Secretary of State's Office to ensure compliance with Wyoming election law.
The News Letter Journal has not independently verified the legal conclusions contained in the email regarding potential consequences if statutory testing deadlines were not met.
Love said the Crook County Republican Party's request closely mirrored her own recommendation that outside election officials oversee additional testing in order to restore public confidence.
Public encounters fueled controversy
Both Tooman and Slagle described encounters with members of the public that later became central to the online discussion.
Slagle said Democratic Party Chair Deb Piana entered the office Friday afternoon while she and Tooman were working.
"She was mad at first," Slagle said. "Then when we told her what we were doing, she seemed quite a bit less upset."
Tooman said the room remained locked because voting equipment had been disassembled for testing and required passwords to access.
He said no election ballots were present — only test materials used during the preparation process.
On Monday, Tooman said Mann-Tavegia attempted to enter the room while the equipment remained set up.
He said he instead met with her in the hallway because allowing people into the work area while the equipment was being prepared increased the risk of errors.
According to Tooman, the criticism that followed quickly spread through Facebook after Mann-Tavegia’s post and eventually became one of the primary factors leading to his resignation.
He also said attacks directed toward individuals associated with him and his campaign contributed to his decision.
"When I realized what was going on, it dawned on me," Tooman said.
Commissioners seek stability
During the special meeting on July 29, commissioners repeatedly emphasized that the immediate priority was ensuring a smooth primary election and stabilizing the clerk's office.
After accepting Tooman's resignation, commissioners adopted Resolution 2026-21 acknowledging the vacancy and appointing Green as acting county clerk until a permanent appointment is made through the statutory nomination process.
Discussion during public comment largely focused on restoring confidence in the election process.
Several speakers encouraged residents to attend upcoming Republican Central Committee meetings where nominees for the permanent appointment would be selected.
Others again advocated for hand-counting ballots in future elections, arguing that repeated controversies involving voting machines had eroded public confidence.
Todd acknowledged those concerns and said commissioners would continue discussing election procedures at their next regular meeting.
"I think it would probably be incumbent upon me and this board to ensure that anything that could have potentially happened with those voting machines ... there was nothing happened to them," Todd said. "We will help push that path to ensure that those voting machines are intact and clean."
One resident reminded residents that the clerk's office performs far more duties than administering elections, including recording documents, issuing marriage licenses and managing county financial records, making experience in the office particularly valuable. During public comment, commissioners also noted Green would likely advertise for temporary assistance because of the office's workload heading into the election.
As Green assumes leadership of the office, commissioners expressed hope the county can move beyond months of controversy that began with former Clerk Becky Hadlock's resignation and continued through Tooman's brief tenure.
For Tooman, resigning was the only path he believed would allow that to happen.
"This is not helping the county," he said. "We need a good election."
How we got here
The latest transition is the newest chapter in months of turmoil surrounding the Weston County Clerk's Office. Former County Clerk Becky Hadlock resigned in April after being charged with two felony counts alleging she falsified election audit documents related to the 2024 general election. Her resignation came after Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray called for her removal and Gov. Mark Gordon moved to have her potentially removed from office through a court hearing.
Under Wyoming law, the Weston County Republican Party Central Committee submitted three nominees to fill the vacancy. The Weston County Commission, however, was unable to reach agreement on any of the candidates, leaving the appointment unresolved.
The matter was then referred to District Court Judge Matt Castano, who appointed James Michael Tooman as temporary county clerk on June 5.
Tooman served less than two months before resigning on July 28, citing the growing public controversy over election preparations and concern that his continued service would undermine confidence in the upcoming Aug. 18 primary election.
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