Laramie County voting machine retest shows no error in tabulators

CHEYENNE — Tuesday’s retest of the machines used to count absentee and recount ballots in Laramie County was completed successfully with no errors, according to County Clerk Debra Lee.

The second test came after Laramie County Republican Party Chairman Taft Love filed a complaint about the first test on Aug. 5. That complaint led to an investigation by the Laramie County District Attorney’s office, a lawsuit filed against the Laramie County Clerk’s office by the Wyoming Republican Party and a letter from Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray calling for a new test.

Love is also one of the plaintiffs listed on the Wyoming GOP’s lawsuit against the Laramie County Clerk’s office. He said that the test Tuesday was a huge success.

“We’re thrilled that the test went well. We want to congratulate and thank the clerk’s office, the sheriff’s department, DCI (Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation), everybody for being there and participating (Tuesday), and helping ensure that we have a good and secure election for this season,” he said.

Per state statute, tabulators must be publicly tested more than two weeks before they are used to count ballots in an election. Love said this legislation allowed the clerk’s office to address what the GOP identified as issues with the tabulator.

However, Lee said that there was no issue with the function of the machines during the first test.

The issue with the original test was that it didn’t meet state statute requirements that each candidate on the test ballot must receive a different number of votes to demonstrate that the machine can properly distribute the votes cast among the different candidates. This was addressed during the second test and completed as directed.

Lee said that there were no issues with the tabulators during either test.

For Love and some other members of the Wyoming Republican Party, their concerns with the DS450 scanner and tabulator, the machine used to count absentee and recount ballots that was retested on Tuesday, have been addressed.

However, Love said he still has some concerns with the DS200 scanner and tabulator, the machine used to count ballots on the day of the election. Both machines are made by Election Systems & Software.

At the testing demonstration Tuesday, Caleb Wilkins, counsel of record for the Wyoming GOP’s case against Laramie County Clerk’s Office, said there are issues with the DS200 machines, which handle a statistical majority of the ballots. Wilkins described these issues as “similar problems, a little bit worse than these (DS450 machines),” stating that there were some numerical failures.

Lee said that there were no issues with the DS200 machines.

While Love and Wilkins are still calling for a retest of the DS200 machines, Lee has yet to announce whether that will happen before Tuesday’s primary election, saying that is between herself and the Laramie County attorney.

This story was published on August 15, 2024.