Addressing oversight — Subcommittee finds ballot errors, reporting failures in Weston County’s 2024 General Election

The legislative subcommittee investigating the 2024 General Election in Weston County has found significant errors in ballot handling and post-election reporting, raising statewide concerns about election oversight at the county level, affecting both a state legislative race and the county commission race.

Following a Sept. 29 meeting in which the subcommittee heard testimony from stakeholders across the state, including Weston County, a report was created for presentation to the Management Audit Committee on Oct. 21. The subcommittee’s findings also include several statute changes to prevent a similar situation from happening in the future. 

According to the subcommittee’s report dated October 2025, two invalid versions of Weston County’s 2024 General Election ballot were distributed alongside the valid version. The error caused machine-reading failures that misclassified 1,279 legitimate votes as undervotes — ballots recorded as blank. These problems were highlighted in verified complaints from Weston County voters, as well as an unverified complaint filed by Secretary of State Chuck Gray.

The report noted that election procedures, including required post-election audits, are almost entirely managed by county clerks. In Weston County’s case, the clerk’s submission to the Secretary of State’s Office failed to identify 21 machine-reading errors in a random hand-count of 75 ballots. Those discrepancies triggered full hand-counts in two races, revealing valid votes that had not been included in the original tally.

Subcommittee origins and ongoing investigation

The Weston County Clerk 2024 General Election Subcommittee was created during a July 9 meeting of the Management Audit Committee after lawmakers learned that more than 1,000 votes in the House District 1 race were not properly counted, and that additional ballot-counting mistakes affected the county commission election.

Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, R–Cody, moved to form the subcommittee to “receive and compel testimony, investigate and produce a comprehensive report specifically to … findings and conclusions regarding the post-election audit that was submitted by the Weston County Clerk after the 2024 general election and the administrative process used to investigate and adjudicate consequences for those actions.”

Recommendations for Legislative Action

In addition to finalizing its findings for review by the Management Audit Committee on Oct. 21, the subcommittee requested four bill drafts from Legislative Service Office staff to address election oversight gaps identified during the investigation:

26LSO-0248: Legislative subpoena penalties: increases fines for ignoring a legislative subpoena from $100 to $750, aligning with other state statutes

26LSO-0249: Falsifying election documents: establishes penalties for submitting false post-election audit results to the secretary of state

26LSO-0250: Post-election audit procedures: requires bipartisan representation in post-election audits, including ballot reviews and report submissions

26LSO-0251: Removal of county officers (election issues): grants the secretary of state the same authority currently held by the governor to recommend removal of a county clerk for misconduct or malfeasance

Any of these proposed bills could be sponsored by the Management Audit Committee, another interim committee or an individual legislator.

The subcommittee also asked the Secretary of State’s Office to provide additional information and directed staff to prepare options for legislative action should prosecution not move forward under W.S. 28-109 through 28-112.

The full Management Audit Committee is expected to discuss and potentially act on the subcommittee’s findings during its Oct. 21 meeting in Cheyenne.