Ensure election integrity, don’t undermine it

The turbulent drama of this week’s voting machine confusion in Wyoming appears to have settled with mere days to spare before the primary election Tuesday.

By all accounts, the machines in question all work as tested, even for the counties that had issues with some of their test ballots.

This was apparently not an issue in Campbell County, but for Laramie County and the handful of others called out by Secretary of State Chuck Gray, it created quite the ruckus in the week leading up to the election.

The question is: to what end?

Here’s what happened. During Laramie County’s tests, which are open to the public there as in all counties, the stack of ballots used contained the same number of votes for some of the candidates. For example, if there were 40 ballots, in some cases there would be 20 votes for each candidate in a two-person race.

That’s opposed to state law, which clearly states that during testing candidates should have differing vote tallies. Because these tests are public, members of the public caught that mistake, which is a good thing, and ostensibly the purpose of both testing, and doing so publicly.

To be clear, the machines counted the votes correctly, but the ballots entered were technically not up to state law. The machines have since been retested correctly, according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.

However, the story snowballed after a complaint from the Laramie County Republican Party Chairman led to a prompt lawsuit from the Wyoming Republican Party and a theatrical letter from Gray, whose office oversees state elections.

Of course, it’s necessary to follow the law, particularly for public officials charged with overseeing public elections that constitute the fundamental basis of our public participation in government. Accordingly, that makes it a problem that the Laramie County tests were run contrary to the law, even if the difference appears negligible to some.

We can all agree that there are few things more important than ensuring our elections are fair and secure. It’s understandable for some to take it for granted, and others to take it too far, but the essential security and trust in elections can’t be compromised for our republic to hold.

That said, when it comes to scrutiny of the Laramie County voting machine tests, what may have begun as a call to ensure election integrity quickly began looking like an attempt to undermine that very integrity.

Criticism — kind, harsh or otherwise — helps only when it’s true.

Catching what was a subtle but clear deviation from election code when voting machines were tested was a good catch. From initial reports on the error, the response all around seemed confused. Rather than seeking clarity, it was taken to extremes.

The backlash that followed, implying some kind of wrongdoing and cracking the window open for skepticism of our state’s election process days before the primary, created distrust that went beyond healthy skepticism.

What’s clear from all of this is that the machines work, when they’re tested within state law and even when tested outside of it. But what many will surely take away from this is that there’s reason to distrust the process.

That’s to say nothing of the push to hand count ballots, which clearly shares overlap with many whom are the most distrustful of our election process. Hand counting may have a place in a very limited capacity, but could prove disastrous if implemented at scale, even in a state whose electorate is as small as Wyoming’s.

Whether the exact details of the law were followed, the machines still tabulated correctly. Nothing from what’s been reported gives the impression that the mistake was intentional, or nefarious. But the rhetoric around it was pounced on with scrutiny that went beyond corrective action. There are clearly people who distrust American elections based on whether their preferred candidates win or lose, in which case they need ready-made reasons to contest and undermine the results.

It’s good that we have watchful eyes on the election process. We should not take for granted the security of our elections, just as we should not opportunistically search for ways to poke holes in its legitimacy.

The situation in Laramie County came very close to creating unnecessary problems. Although resolved as of now, there’s daylight for bad-faith actors to raise doubts depending on how certain races are decided.

One of the few things more important than ensuring our elections are fair, is ensuring they aren’t undermined.