Latest news with #LaramieCounty
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
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.'
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Laramie County awards $2.1M to community orgs to fight opioid crisis
CHEYENNE – Laramie County has allocated nearly $2.2 million in federal funds to local organizations to help alleviate the impacts of the opioid crisis. The funds come from the National Opioids Settlement after some pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors were found to be, in part, responsible for the opioid crisis. In 2021, four companies were ordered to pay $26 billion to the federal government over nearly two decades. Those funds are distributed to the states and then allocated to counties. To date, Wyoming has received $23.6 million of an anticipated $52.9 million in funds to be put toward programs and organizations working to address the opioid crisis. Last year, the Laramie County Board of County Commissioners formed an Opioid Settlement Task Force to determine how to spend those funds on a local level. Over the next three years, the county will operate a grant program to distribute the funds it receives from the settlement. In the first trial year of distributing the grant funds, Laramie County received applications from 12 organizations seeking a total of $4,750,511. Of the more than $2.5 million available to distribute, the task force selected six applicants to receive a portion of the funds, for a total of $2,178,888 distributed. Laramie County Commission Chairman Gunnar Malm, who is also the commission's representative on the task force, said the remaining $403,144 will likely roll over into the next round of funding applications. He said if the program is successful, the county will likely open applications for funds again next year, though it is uncertain at this time how much money will be available in the future. Gunnar Malm (Official) Laramie County Commissioner Gunnar Malm The success of the program will be based on reports the fund recipients submit to the county throughout the year to judge the efficacy of their efforts. 'I'm really excited to get these funds deployed in our community to tackle this really important and dire situation that we see ourselves in, in terms of opioid abuse, and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to make meaningful change,' Malm said. One of the organizations receiving funds is Recover Wyoming. The Cheyenne-based addiction treatment center will receive the full $89,085 it applied for to expand peer-based recovery services. Recover Wyoming Executive Director Lana Mahoney said this program will connect those suffering from opioid use disorder with peers in recovery to discuss recovery pathways, provide information and connect them with community resources. 'We recognized that there was a great need for that in the community, and that's part of the reason why we decided to focus our grant application on that specifically, is to provide that peer-based recovery support,' Mahoney said. Currently, Recover Wyoming has a peer support program with a recovery coach and a telephone recovery support program, but these funds will support a staff hire to focus directly on the population with opioid use disorder. A stipulation of the funds distributed nationally is that they must go toward programs that directly address the opioid crisis. Additionally, some of the funds will be used by Recover Wyoming for community education and outreach programs like the use of Narcan, also known as naloxone, advocacy work, stigma reduction and how to recognize if someone is experiencing an overdose. Mahoney said she hopes to continue to apply for this grant in the coming years to help fund the expansion of the peer-based support program. 'I think there's going to be a continued need to support that specific population. And so regardless of if the funds continue or not, we will likely look for alternative resources to continue that work, because I think it's going to be really important,' she said. Malm said he is pleased with the diversity of applicants that were awarded funds to address the opioid crisis from multiple angles. 'It wasn't just something that we did that was solely law enforcement focused or justice-involved people focused. There was a family component and a health component. And we were able to make sure that we used the funds across the entire community and make sure that we're doing as much good as possible with them,' he said. The fund recipients are as follows: * Cheyenne Fire Rescue: $499,954.22 to provide medication assisted treatment (MAT) services in conjunction with the Laramie County Detention Center and Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. * Cheyenne Regional Medical Center: $499,869.33 to expand alternatives to opioids program, MAT Bridge clinic with CFR and Detention Center. * HealthWorks: $500,000 to expand opioid abatement services. * Laramie County Sheriff's Office: $275,000 for expansion/continuation of the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program. * Recover Wyoming: $89,085.26 to expand peer-based recovery to individuals struggling with opioid use disorder. * Stride: $314,980 to expand plans of safe care in the community. Some applicants were disqualified from receiving funds based on criteria judged by the task force. Others did not receive funds for reasons like capacity concerns, limited clients served, concern of duplication or not being opioid specific. 'As a community, we really have a lot of great projects going on with the use of these funds,' Mahoney said, 'and so I'm excited to see how we can provide some wrap-around services and really are able to support all the people in Cheyenne.'
