Wyoming Elections Part II:
When the Certification Does Not Match the Record

OPINION

We all want fair, honest elections. That is not partisan; it is the foundation of self-government.

Wyoming’s county clerks want the same thing. They ran to serve their neighbors and took a solemn oath. The system itself is the problem — not the people running it.

The trap built into the system

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Wyoming clerks face an impossible task. Building a valid Logic and Accuracy (L&A) test deck requires identifying every precinct ballot style, assigning distinct vote totals to every candidate in every race, testing publicly and reconciling every count against expected results. That is a week-long technical project for a software engineer. Clerks receive neither that time nor that training; they are handed a deadline and a signature line.

They must then certify proprietary machinery under contracts restricting internal inspection. Are modems inside? Checking voids the contract.

Wyoming handed a private out-of-state corporation the power to control our elections — then made it illegal for our own elected officials to look inside the machines.

The vendor bears no statutory responsibility for Election Day performance. That legal duty falls entirely on the clerk. If equipment fails, the vendor’s contract protects the vendor, leaving the clerk holding sole liability.

Federal election guidelines have warned since 2005 that administrative flaws alter election outcomes as easily as broken machines. True election integrity requires strong technical security and sound local management working together. Yet Wyoming leaves clerks to shoulder full legal liability without the staffing, training or tools to protect themselves or their voters.

The USB door is wide open

We are told voting machines are air-gapped from the internet. In practice, that gap is bridged every election. Clerks download election definition files from internet-connected county computers onto USB drives, then duplicate them using commercial SYSTOR cloning devices not certified under federal Election Assistance Commission standards.

Independent technical reviewer Rick Weible identified this process as a documented malware pathway directly into election equipment. An infection on the county computer travels via USB into every tabulator.

Wyoming voting systems have purportedly not received antivirus or security updates since 2022. AI tools now exploit unpatched systems in seconds — altering code and vote counts while erasing tracks. AI leaves no fingerprints. Clerks are set up to fail inside a system AI can compromise faster than any county office can detect.

A signature is not a formality

Under Wyoming Election Procedures Rules, Chapter 29, Section 7, clerks must certify that printers, ballot-marking devices and tabulators passed public L&A testing and are ready across every precinct and ballot style.

Wyoming Statute § 22-11-104(b)(iii) mandates assigning a different number of valid votes to each candidate. Different means not identical, and zero votes do not count as tested votes.

Certifying a test passed when records prove noncompliance is a false statement of fact, regardless of intent.

The public has a right to see the proof

Secretary of State Chuck Gray formally warned in 2024 that multiple counties failed this unambiguous statutory requirement. No county has publicly documented remediation before the 2026 primary.

In a republic, faith cannot replace proof. Tabulation errors in one county alter representation for all Wyoming citizens.

To his credit, Secretary Gray concluded that paper ballots are the only reliable solution. He was mocked for his foresight, but he was right. When Wyoming’s chief election official determines the system cannot be trusted, citizens should listen.

Weston County: The warning bell

Weston County demonstrates the danger. The clerk certified all machines passed before the 2024 primary, yet state referrals confirmed tests failed to assign distinct vote totals. A retest also failed, and defects recurred in the general election.

A post-election audit claimed zero errors, but subsequent reviews confirmed 21 discrepancies across 75 ballots. Investigators found a false audit had been knowingly filed.

A plea agreement reduced one felony to a misdemeanor, a second felony was dismissed, and the clerk resigned on April 9, 2026. Vendor immunity resulted in criminal liability for a clerk who could not independently verify the system she certified.

The silence in the record is itself an answer

While Wyoming law does not mandate attaching test records to certifications, nothing prevents voluntary disclosure. Attaching test decks, expected-result worksheets and machine tally reports transforms assertions into verifiable public proof. A clerk who followed the law has nothing to fear from sunlight.

Furthermore, the FBI and U.S. Attorney for the District of Wyoming have independent authority to investigate federal election irregularities without state referrals. Any clerk handed an unverifiable system can request federal technical review to uphold her oath.

The real answer

When proprietary systems defy local verification, vendor contracts bar inspection and AI can silently exploit unpatched USB pathways, the machinery itself must go.

France hand-counts 68 million paper ballots on election night in full public view. Wyoming has 580,000 voters. We do not need a more complex machine; we need no machine at all.

This is Part 2 of a three-part series on Wyoming election integrity. Part 3 examines vendor contracts, hardware vulnerabilities and the case for Wyoming sovereignty through hand-marked paper ballots counted publicly on election night.