NEWS
Saturday, August 29, Sheridan County held its 5% hand-count audit of the 2026 Primary Election. It was held in the County Commissioners chamber at the Sheridan County Courthouse.
Several tables were set up for counters to work through the ballots, but the bulk of the room was cordoned off from the public. A section of the room, directly inside the chamber door, had chairs for the public to sit in. Per statute, the canvassing board selected which precinct(s) to hand count to meet the 5% of total ballots cast. There were 10,095 ballots cast county-wide during the Aug 18th primary election; meaning 505 ballots had to be counted by hand according to Sheridan Deputy Chief Clerk Kim Hein.
In several places in the room, signs had been hung that read, “No Phone Use, No Recording Devices.”
When The Open Range Record took a picture of the room, Kim Hein, Sheridan County Deputy Chief Clerk walked over and informed us that photographs and recording were forbidden in the room. In the 1979 case Williams v. Stafford, the Wyoming Supreme Court ruled that the government can restrict public access to a meeting “only in exceptional circumstances.”
In a 1983 case that Deputy County Attorney Clint Beaver should be familiar with, Sheridan Newspapers, Inc. v. City of Sheridan, the Supreme Court stated that “state agencies must act in a fishbowl,” ruling that the press has a constitutional and statutory right of access.
David Iverson, managing editor of The Open Range Record asked Hein, “So you are barring the press from a hand count?” Hein replied without citing a specific statute nor answering the question, “Clint Beaver is downstairs talking, and until I get a verification from him, I can’t have any pictures.” Clint Beaver is the Sheridan County Deputy Attorney. Both Kim Hein and Clint Beaver were appointed to their positions and are not accountable to voters. The audio of this part of the exchange is difficult to hear.
When Beaver and Hein returned, after approximately 30 minutes, Iverson was handed a photocopy of page 222 of Volume 1 of the Annotated Wyoming Statutes. Highlighted on that page was a single sentence out of Article 6 section 11 of the Wyoming Constitution:
“All voters shall be guaranteed absolute privacy in the preparation of their ballots, and the secrecy of the ballot shall be made compulsory.”
Article 6 section 11 refers to the “Manner of holding elections.” It does not reference what happens after an election. Secondly, the entire sentence refers to the act of voting. At the time of the hand-count audit, all voting had ceased eleven days prior.
In Wyoming, there is no way to identify who filled out which ballot by looking at it. The only ballot that could be personally identifiable would be an absentee ballot and only if it was still contained in the envelope. There were no ballot envelopes in the Sheridan County Commissioners chamber.
In handing the photocopy to Iverson, Hein said “this is what deals with you having to take pictures umm it’s a privacy…”
To which, Iverson replied, “This has nothing to do with the press, Kim.”
“It has everything to do with the Constitution. All voters have a right to privacy,” said Hein. Iverson incredulously replied, “That’s why you have a public section.” Hein continued to maintain that Iverson had every right to be at the meeting. Iverson’s reply was, “But I can’t record anything.” Hein responded with what perhaps sums up the entire exchange, “Correct.”
After a little back and forth, Iverson concluded, “Okay, so here's the way I'm taking this: You're preventing the press from reporting on a legal proceeding under a legislative measure. That's what you're doing."
Sheridan County Attorney Clint Beaver quickly jumped in saying, “File a complaint then, David.” When Iverson replied, “I will,” Beaver repeated himself. “File a complaint.” During the second visit from Hein, Clint Beaver was standing approximately 8 inches from Iverson. A sheriff’s deputy was behind him.
Hein and Beaver claimed that one section of the Wyoming Constitution allows them to bar the press from a public meeting, while at the same time violating Article 1 section 20 of the Constitution that clearly states: “Every person may freely speak, write and publish on all subjects being responsible for the abuse of that right.”
The actions of the Sheridan County Chief Deputy Clerk Kim Hein and Deputy County Attorney Clint Beaver also clearly violate the First Amendment’s guarantee of a free press. In Wyoming, the only time the press can be excluded from a meeting of public officials is if the meeting is an executive session or, as the Court noted in Williams v. Stafford, “only in exceptional circumstances.” An advertised meeting with specific public seating does not qualify.
In what was supposed to be a meeting about transparency of government, Sheridan County’s audit was done without the video or photographic scrutiny of the press. Tabulations of the hand-count were done out of public view. Saturday’s meeting at the Sheridan County Courthouse was the very definition of why Wyoming Citizens question our elections and our elected officials’ dedication to our constitutions.