Catch Title: Election Purity and Hand Count Act

Sponsor: Representative(s) Smith, Brady and Webber; Senator(s) French, Ide and Laursen, D

Effective Date: Immediately (Applicable to elections after January 1, 2026)

Bill URL: https://www.wyoleg.gov/Legislation/2026/HB0094

Overview

HB0094 mandates a comprehensive transition of all Wyoming elections to a manual, hand-counted system, explicitly prohibiting the use of electronic voting machines, tabulators, scanners, or electronic pollbooks. The bill establishes stringent statewide standards for ballot design, chain of custody, and publicly conducted manual counting, primarily anchored to the external “Gold Standard Elections” guidelines. It introduces significant new criminal and civil penalties for election officials who fail to strictly adhere to these manual procedures.

Key Provisions

• Prohibition of Electronic Systems: Bans the use of any electronic equipment for casting, tabulating, or scanning ballots, including the use of electronic pollbooks.
• Mandatory Hand Counting: Requires all votes to be cast on paper ballots and manually tallied in full public view at designated counting centers.
• External Rulemaking Standards: Directs the Secretary of State to adopt rules for ballot design and counting based specifically on the USCase.org “Gold Standard Elections” white paper.
• Strict Chain of Custody: Mandates a documented chain of custody for all materials and requires continuous 24-month video surveillance of all stored ballots.
• Counting Teams: Requires teams of at least four members with balanced political representation to perform independent, reconciled tallies.
• Public Observation and Recording: Mandates that all counting, training, and canvassing meetings be open to the public, with audio/video recording required for all counts and recounts.
• Restricted Disability Access: Permits accessible voting devices only to produce a human-readable ballot, which must then be manually counted alongside all other ballots.

Implications

• Massive Fiscal Burden: [Not Specified] The bill lacks a comprehensive fiscal note. While the Secretary of State is identified as the cost-identifier, local estimates (e.g., Campbell County) suggest costs between $98k and $1.3M per election for labor and infrastructure—potentially $2.6M per election year in a single county.
• Logistical Impossibility: The requirement for 500 to 2,000 volunteers per county to conduct hand counts is considered unattainable given current challenges in recruiting even standard poll workers.
• Delegated Rulemaking Concern: [Ambiguous] Requiring the Secretary of State to adopt rules based on a non-governmental external “white paper” may constitute an improper delegation of legislative or rulemaking authority to a private entity.
• Accuracy and Speed: Despite the bill’s aim for “purity,” statistically valid studies consistently show that manual hand counting is more expensive, slower, and significantly more prone to human error than electronic tabulation.
• Privacy and HAVA Risks: Because ballots from accessible voting devices are clearly distinguishable from pen-and-ink ballots, the bill risks compromising the “secret ballot” requirement for voters with disabilities and creating conflicts with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA).
• Unfunded Infrastructure: The mandate for 24-month continuous video surveillance of all ballot storage creates substantial new data-management and security costs for all 23 counties.
• Increased Peril for Clerks: Newly created misdemeanors and felonies for “willful failure” to follow hand-count procedures significantly increase the legal liability for locally elected clerks and their staff.