***For all things Wyoming, sign up for our daily newsletter***

By Leo Wolfson, Cowboy State Daily

The 2022 election season opened Friday in Wyoming with the start of mail-in and early voting across the state.

Thousands of ballots were mailed to voters across the state, while many more ballots were dropped off in person by voters at their local county courthouses.

The 2020 election was a year marked by record absenteeism and early voter turnout. After Friday’s opening day, a little data collection shows that this trend may continue.

“It may well be a trend,” said Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee. “A lot of people didn’t know they could request a mail-in ballot.”

In Laramie County, 1,844 mail-in ballots were requested Friday. Although there were nearly 9,000 requests in 2020, Lee said only about 700 were requested in the last non-presidential year in 2018.

The same goes for early voting on Opening Day, as 158 people voted in its offices on Friday, compared to 103 who did so in 2018.

“We got more than expected,” Lee said. “It’s been stable all day.”

Postal votes

To request an absentee ballot, voters should contact their local election offices. Ballots can be picked up in person or can be mailed.

The mailing date for postal ballots respects the legal deadline for sending ballots 45 days before the election.

Absentee voting allows residents who live overseas, who are in the military, those who will be out of town on election day, or those who do not feel comfortable voting person to vote. These ballots can be mailed back to the office or brought in person.

Any registered voter can request an absentee ballot in person, over the phone or via email any day before Election Day, but Park County Department of Elections staffer Kaitlyn Johnson advises plan ahead as these ballots will not be accepted after 7:00 p.m. election night. The primary elections will be held on August 16 and the general elections on November 8.

To register, photo ID and proof of address are required.

Early voting

Early voting is different from mail-in voting in that it is a process where people vote at their county election offices. Johnson said about a dozen people came into his office on Friday to vote early.

“People should take advantage of the many ways to vote in Wyoming,” Johnson said.

Johnson said more people requested mail-in ballots — 752 since January — than early votes.

Still, that number pales in comparison to mail-in ballot requests made in 2020, a peak year for mail-in ballots nationwide due to COVID-19 concerns.

“2020 was an anomaly,” Lee said.

Election material

On Thursday, Fremont County conducted its biennial test of its election equipment. The test was led by County Clerk Julie Freese and her team, joined by Fremont County Republican Chairman Ginger Bennett, Republican Party officials and a Fremont County Democratic Party official.

Staff prepared a selection of ballots for each constituency and each race. These ballots were entered into the vote tabulator in the presence of witnesses.

“Every imaginable malfunction of the machine was tested,” Bennett said.

The numbers were tabulated and all parties agreed that the totals matched numbers prepared by the clerk’s office prior to the process, Bennett said.

Once this confirmation was made, the machines were reset and locked.

“This process will be completed for every machine used in the 2022 election cycle to ensure that the vote tabulation prepared by the county clerk accurately reflects the votes cast by people voting in Fremont County,” Bennett said.

Above average

Lee said outside of 2020, early voting turnout on Friday was above the historical average.

Ballot boxes placed outside government offices to collect early votes became a controversial topic after the 2020 election because of the film ‘2000 Mules’, which alleged that similar ballot boxes across the country had been compromised by ballot stuffers.

Johnson said Park County does not plan to place those boxes outside the courthouse like it did in 2020, while Laramie County will place its boxes outside.

“They’re set in concrete and bolted to concrete,” Lee said.

***For all things Wyoming, sign up for our daily newsletter***