Why don't we require proof of residency?

It's been in the Constitution since 1889

Did you know that in the state of Wyoming a person can vote without ever being asked to prove that he or she lives in the precinct, county, or state that is listed in the voter registry? In fact, one need not even show proof of U.S. citizenship! At the August 24, 2023, meeting of the Joint Corporations, Elections, and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee, Malcolm Ervin, President of the County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming, told the committee, “[R]esidency requirements—the proof thereof—should be in rule.”

To fill this need, Secretary of State Chuck Gray, has proposed rule changes to Chapter 2 of Wyoming’s Election Code. He proposes amending three sections (5, 6 & 7) that provide clarity, uniformity, and specific requirements for proving a “voter’s identity” (Section 5), “a voter’s residency” (Section 6), and “evidence of citizenship when registering to vote” (Section 7). Most Wyomingites that I told about these changes were flabbergasted to learn that we didn’t already require these proofs.

After all, until recently, it wasn’t good enough to keep your car insured. You were also routinely fined if you couldn’t produce proof of insurance paperwork on demand. Normal people would think that a voter’s proof of residency is more important.

If you thought that the 2021 passage of HB 85 Voter Identification fixed to problem, you were mistaken. The rules were updated only to require a voter to prove his or her identity. If that identity card was from a different city, state or country, no worries! “We are not—we are not required to look at those documents,” Fremont County Clerk, Julie Freese, told the Elections Committee.

Although it is election fraud for a voter from Jackson to cast a vote for the city council of Evanston, or for a UW student from Colorado to vote for Albany County School board, Ervin informed the committee that complaints about cross-jurisdictional voting are common.

Requiring proof of residency from first time registrants would not only reduce such complaints dramatically, more importantly it would align Wyoming election code with Wyoming’s Constitution.

According to Article 6, Sections 2 and 5, voters in the state of Wyoming must be U.S. citizens who have resided in the state for one year, and in the county where they cast their ballot for1 at least two months before election day. The people of the state of Wyoming require these things in their constitution, and officers who swear an oath to it are obligated to act accordingly.

We, the people, were so serious about excluding non-citizens and non-residents from interfering in our local elections that we deliberately withhold the right to vote even from fully qualified citizens until they take the additional step of registering to vote (Article 6, Section 12). And we emphasized this provision by adding that it “shall never be repealed”!

Everyone who takes the oath to “support and defend the constitution” promises to write and enforce policies that enact these requirements and to “defend” those policies from being overturned—either in court, or by inaction. This requirement is unambiguous and is spelled out in the very next section of the Constitution: “The legislature shall pass laws to secure the purity of elections and guard against abuses of the elective franchise” (Article 6, Section 13). Such abuses include cross-jurisdiction voting.

The duty that our elected officials have to make sure elections are carried out according to the strict requirements of the people of Wyoming flows out of the constitution’s very first sentence: “All power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority” (Article 1, Section 1). If all state, county, and city power flows directly from the people, they have a fundamental right to guard themselves against anyone who would abuse the vote and make their elections impure.

This starts by preventing non-citizens from entering an illegal vote into the ballot box, or citizens of one Wyoming locale from interfering in the elections belonging to the residents of another Wyoming locale. Citizens have every right to expect that their county clerk can document that neither of these “abuses of the elective franchise” have taken place in their county, municipality, or precinct.

In fact, any officer of the state of Wyoming who allows even one non-citizen or non-resident to cast an illegal vote—has violated his or her oath to “obey . . . the Constitution of the State of Wyoming,” This exposes an officer to the charge of perjury and to “be forever disqualified from holding any office of trust or profit within this state” (Article 6, Section 21). It’s that serious.

Given this constitutional foundation, the proposed rules of the secretary of state are a well-considered and urgently needed update to the rules governing Wyoming’s elections. Let’s be grateful to the county clerks for alerting us to this need, and to Secretary Gray for proposing these rules.

Author’s Note:

A public hearing on the proposed rule changes will be held in Cheyenne on January 26, 2024. Citizens that want them adopted should send comments to Joe Rubino, Chief Policy Officer and General Counsel of the Secretary of State: Joe.Rubino1@wyo.gov. and/or speak at the meeting. Write a sentence or two now, while it’s fresh on your mind. Don’t miss this chance to make your voice heard.