Wyoming GOP drops lawsuit against Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee over voting machine test
CHEYENNE — The Wyoming Republican Party has dismissed its lawsuit against Laramie County Debra Lee for conducting what it said was a 'flawed' voting machine test prior to last year's primary election.
In a statement sent by email Saturday morning in response to a Wyoming Tribune Eagle inquiry Friday, new Wyoming Republican Party Chairman Bryan Miller said Lee 'for reasons unknown ... refused to provide evidence of testing as directed by the court, resulting in the court scheduling a hearing on whether to hold the clerk in contempt of court.'
'Facing charges of contempt of court, the Laramie County clerk finally agreed to provide the required documentation just two days before the hearing,' Miller said in the statement. 'Why the Laramie County Clerk initially chose not to follow Wyoming election statutes, why she ignored the requests of the Laramie County Republican Party to properly test the machines resulting in forcing the hand of the Wyoming Republican Party to file suit, and why she chose to violate the court-ordered consent decree resulting from that suit we may never know for certain, but be it known to all involved in the state's election process that the Wyoming Republican Party stands firm in protecting the integrity of Wyoming's elections.'
Lee characterizes the situation much differently, however.
In her own statement to the WTE, she said the Laramie County Clerk's Office engaged in a 10-month-long litigation with the state Republican Party, which consumed 'over $50,000 in Laramie County taxpayer dollars and hundreds of hours of the Laramie County Clerk staff.'
Parties in the lawsuit reached a resolution 'after three individuals — none of whom were from Laramie County — and a self-proclaimed 'expert' from out of state inspected documents related to the Laramie County Clerk's testing of election equipment used in the August 2024 Primary Election.'
Lee said she offered the state Republican Party an opportunity 'to inspect these same documents on several occasions, beginning as early as last September.' However, party representatives failed to provide a meaningful response, according to Lee, and the case dragged out for months.
'This was a case of one political party choosing to weaponize the law against an experienced and respected county clerk, taking instructions from an out-of-state actor, inappropriately issuing edicts on testing methodology and threatening elected county clerks throughout the state,' Lee's attorney, Tim Stubson, said in the statement. 'Laramie County publicly retested its equipment on four occasions, each time without tabulation errors, proving the equipment was properly coded and accurately counting Primary Election votes. This was likely the most tested equipment in the state of Wyoming and perhaps the nation.'
The voting test
The lawsuit was filed last August by the state GOP after former Laramie County GOP Chairman Taft Love issued a complaint with the Secretary of State's Office over a flawed voting machine test.
In early August, Love attended a test of the electronic voting machines that would be used in the primary election. He noticed that the ballots fed into the machine had the same number of votes for each candidate. Under Wyoming statute, the machines must be fed ballots with a varied number of votes for candidates.
Love notified Lee of the violation, and she said she would reach out to the voting company, Electronic Systems & Software (ES&S), for a new set of ballots to run another test. The next morning, Lee emailed Love to tell him she had not heard back from the company, and it would be another week before she could get back to him.
In order to 'protect election integrity,' Love filed the complaint. A couple days later, the state GOP filed a lawsuit against the county clerk. The Laramie County GOP was not a listed plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The Wyoming GOP executive committee decided to initiate the lawsuit in order 'to take all measures to restore integrity in the election,' according to a statement at the time. It asked the district court 'to declare that the electronic tabulating machines have not been properly tested and issue an injunction to safeguard the integrity of our primary election,' according to a news release.
In Saturday's statement, Miller said, 'Unfortunately, the Laramie County clerk indicated her intent was to use the machines in the election despite the failures. The Wyoming Republican Party was therefore forced to bring suit to protect the integrity of the election.
'Shortly thereafter, the clerk entered into a court-ordered consent decree requiring the clerk to perform additional testing, as well as disclose evidence of prior testing.'
According to Lee, the Wyoming GOP made repeat requests for additional documents and testing procedures from her office. However, the 'barrage of demands' during a critical point of the election season 'threatened to jeopardize the successful administration' of the primary and general elections in Laramie County.
'It is our hope the party's new leadership returns to what has been Wyoming's common sense, productive, respectful and professional working relationship with elected county clerks to best serve the voters of Wyoming,' Lee's statement read. 'It's time to turn the page.'
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