Another Weston County clerk resigns — this time 3 weeks before an election

FROM WYOFILE: 

The clerk’s office in Newcastle has been under significant strain since a 2024 ballot miscount led to multiple investigations and criminal charges.

Weston County Clerk Michael Tooman resigned Tuesday, three weeks before the primary election and less than two months after a district court judge appointed him to the position. 

“I was becoming a focal point for questioning the validity of the election, and we badly need a good election in Weston County,” Tooman told WyoFile on Tuesday. “And so I just removed myself.”

The clerk’s office in Newcastle has been under a significant strain since 2024, when former clerk Becky Hadlock caused an initial ballot miscount that sparked public outcry, a legislative subpoena, several investigations and multiple criminal charges. 

Hadlock resigned in April, one day after she was arrested and charged with two felonies related to her conduct during and after the 2024 general election. In May, Hadlock reached an agreement with prosecutors that reduced one felony to a misdemeanor and dismissed the second charge in exchange for a guilty plea. The deal helped her avoid any jail time.

Tooman was appointed in June to fill the vacancy until voters selected a new clerk in the 2026 election. That process, however, was also not without controversy. A district court judge stepped in after county commissioners failed to make a selection from the three nominees provided by the Weston County Republican Party. 

“I was court ordered in the first place,” Tooman said Tuesday. “The commissioners weren’t willing to choose me from the three names, so it’s already controversial.”

Tooman said he would not “go into specific details because they’re not relevant,” but he became a “distraction” after he had Weston County GOP Committeewoman Ann Slagle “come and help me because she was an election judge to help set everything up.”

Local residents objected to that, Tooman said. 

“Even though there’s nothing that I did illegally or immorally or unethically. [It] doesn’t matter — perception. The number one rule of politics, whether you like it or not, perception is reality,” Tooman said. 

Tooman also withdrew as a candidate from the race, which leaves deputy clerk Amber Green running unopposed in the primary election. In the meantime, she’s now serving as interim clerk. 

“She’ll do a good job,” Tooman said. “I’m very confident that she’ll handle it. I really am. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have resigned.”

Green declined to comment Tuesday to WyoFile but confirmed that the public testing of election machines scheduled for today had been postponed and that her office is working with the secretary of state’s office to keep things on track for the Aug. 18 primary election.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, places and policy.

This story was posted on July 28, 2026.  

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