Election oversight needed
We find ourselves not only appalled, but deeply disheartened, frustrated, and bewildered.
How could anyone fail to see what’s right in front of them?
The 2025 Subcommittee on Becky Hadlock and the 2024 election was not formed to punish — it was born out of necessity. Its mission is clear: to examine and strengthen Wyoming’s election statutes so that what happened once cannot happen again, whether through deliberate wrongdoing or careless error.
Currently, county clerks in Wyoming have full control over their local elections. Their duties include testing machines, ordering and proofing ballots (and often designing them), selecting and training election judges, choosing canvassing boards, conducting post-election audits and much more.
These statutes are long overdue for reform. The system lacks meaningful oversight and leaves the public with little ability to ensure transparency in their elections. If more eyes were on these critical processes, the likelihood of a ballot error — one significant enough to affect a race — would drop dramatically. Whether the race was contested or not misses the point entirely.
We must also remember that the Weston County Commissioners race was off by more than 60 votes. Had that occurred during a primary, it’s entirely possible that some voters’ ballots were counted for the wrong candidate.
While no system is foolproof, proper oversight could have prevented what came next: a false post-election audit. Despite being aware of the vote count anomalies, Hadlock submitted a report to the Wyoming Secretary of State that falsely claimed there were no
anomalies.
Before that report, Hadlock had spoken multiple times with Secretary of State Chuck Gray, who had already raised concerns about the vote totals. Despite his warnings, she assured him that everything was “normal.” Only after the hand count revealed the true results did Hadlock amend her report — this time acknowledging 21 anomalies in the very same 75 ballots she had previously claimed were flawless.
That is the crux of the issue: a false report was knowingly submitted to a state official. The attempt to cover up the error was, at best, careless; at worst, deliberate.
During the legislative committee’s hearing, both clerks who testified agreed that there was simply no way Hadlock could have missed 21
ballot errors.
Some now argue that the system worked — that checks and balances ultimately caught the problem before certification. But that conclusion overlooks a key fact: Hadlock had to be pressured by multiple individuals to even conduct a recount. Without that persistence, the false results might have stood unchallenged.
While the Weston County experience may have begun as human error, it exposed a glaring hole in Wyoming’s election laws. Our government is built on checks and balances — on not giving one individual unchecked power. Yet, Wyoming’s clerks currently hold near-total control over elections that rightfully belong to the people.
Statutory updates are essential. We urge the Wyoming Legislature to take this issue seriously and move toward reforms that strengthen transparency and accountability. We also encourage Hadlock to cooperate fully and share her experience, so lawmakers can craft effective changes grounded in
real-world lessons.
Weston County residents deserve to trust their elections. Every Wyoming voter deserves that same confidence. Elections belong to the people — and that means ensuring citizens have a role in every step of the process.
More oversight, more transparency and more public involvement will not weaken our elections — they will strengthen them. And that, more than anything, should put all of us at ease.