Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray criticized Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon’s veto of a proposed amendment to the state’s voter registration rules that would have required Wyoming residents to provide proof of residency when registering to vote, calling the veto move “horrifying.”
Gordon vetoed the rule change on April 12, arguing that the proposal “exceeds his statutory authority,” citing advice he received from the Wyoming Legislature’s Management Council.
In a letter to Gray announcing his decision to veto the rule change, Gordon said, “Unless and until the legislature grants the Secretary of State more explicit authority allowing for rulemaking to add to those statutory requirements at the time of registration, I believe these rules are a breach of the separation of powers with the legislative branch, as indicated by the Management Council’s recommendation.”
On Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, Gray said it was “horrifying” that the governor of one of the most conservative states in the country would veto a measure to implement “basic election integrity safeguards.”
“The Wyoming state law allows us to adopt rules for uniformity, it allows us to adopt rules for the registration process, and very importantly, it requires us to verify the information provided on the voter registration form, which includes an attestation, a promise, if you will, that you’re a resident and that you are a citizen. Now, we are required in state law to verify that information. One of the things we found when we entered office was that there was no verification process for residency and for citizenship. It was just an attestation on the voter registration form. Proof of identity has always been provided for in the secretary of state’s rules,” Gray explained.
“So what we tried to do was to amend the rules to also provide for that proof of Wyoming residency, which is required in Wyoming state law that you’re a what’s called a ‘bona fide resident.’ Specifically, what we were trying to do with this was to say that non-resident designations on licenses would not be allowed for registering to vote. Now, who has non resident designations on IDs? It’s illegal aliens. Amazingly, the governor vetoed this rulemaking and in light of the crisis at the southern border, this Biden-created crisis and what Mayorkas is doing and just the enormous illegal immigration into our country, it’s just horrifying that we have a governor that is going to veto these basic election integrity safeguards to ensure that only U. S. citizens vote In our elections,” Gray added.
Gray went on to speculate that the governor’s veto was part of an “alliance” between him, who he likened to a RINO (Republican in Name Only), entities affiliated with the Democratic Party, and the media.
“We’ve seen what happens at the federal level, just as at the state level… There’s an alliance between the insiders, who are often called RINOs, the media, and the Democrats, and they work together to prevent conservative policy, which the silent majority wants, from going through,” Gray said. “This is just another example of it.”
“The day I was handed the governor’s veto was in the four o’clock hour on a Friday because they wanted as little exposure on this as possible. I think it’s very important we bring to light what happened here,” Gray added.
Gray also noted how the governor’s veto of the proposed rule change came on the same day that Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives announced they would be introducing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which “seeks to ensure that only U.S. citizens participate in federal elections by requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration.”
“As I was handed this veto, at the same time, President Trump was having a press conference down in Mar-a-Lago announcing that Representative Chip Roy would be filing the SAVE Act, which is doing exactly what we were trying to do with our rulemakings but at the federal level. It’s very interesting because we didn’t know this was coming at the federal level. It provides for proof of citizenship for voting in federal elections. So this just underscores how important this issue is and how horrifying the governor’s veto was as at the same time, President Trump is working to do this at the federal level and we can’t even bring this through in a completely red state like Wyoming,” Gray said.
“I support the SAVE Act 100 percent. I hope it goes through, but it’s too bad we couldn’t bring this through when it’s actually required by state law that we have verification of the information on the voter registration form,” Gray added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray” by Chuck Gray.
