Wyoming GOP passes resolution to censure Laramie County Clerk

CHEYENNE — Saturday morning, the Wyoming Republican Party’s Central Committee passed a resolution to censure Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee at its monthly meeting in Douglas.

Previously, the state GOP’s Executive Committee issued a news release announcing a resolution that criticized Lee’s management of a voting machine test, which they believed to be noncompliant with state law.

The resolution came after the GOP launched a lawsuit against Lee, claiming she unlawfully handled the testing of the voting machines prior to the Aug. 20 primary election.

After the lawsuit was filed, Lee released a public statement claiming there were “no errors” with the voting test and that the lawsuit sought “to disrupt” the primary elections process.

The GOP’s issue was that the test ballots all had the same number of votes for each candidate. Per state statute, the test ballots must show a different number of votes on each ballot to demonstrate that the tabulator machines can count a different number of votes for each candidate.

The tabulators were retested and showed no error in counting the votes, Lee previously told the WTE.

“We’re thrilled that the test went well,” Laramie County GOP Chairman Taft Love previously told the WTE. “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.”

However, the GOP passed a censure resolution Saturday that states that Lee was “misrepresenting that her erroneous testing had no errors, resisting even the most common sense efforts to fix her statutory noncompliance, flatly ignoring multiple early attempts to help her rectify the situation with both the DS450 and DS200 tabulators, failing to perform the public preparation of the voting machines mandated by Wyo. Stat. section 22-10-108, and resisting accountability at every turn.”

In previous reporting, Wyoming GOP Chairman Frank Eathorne told the WTE he “wouldn’t rule anything out” when asked if there were plans for any further litigation against Lee.

“It’s going to be decided by the body, now that everyone is aware what has taken place, and what the state party actions have been, and many kept up with it all along,” Eathorne said. “We just want the law to be followed.”

The Wyoming GOP passing the censure resolution does not indicate any move toward further litigation, and is only a formal statement of disapproval.

Members of the Wyoming GOP could not be reached for comment before publication Saturday.