Recognizing voter concerns over non-citizens attempting to vote nationwide, Governor Mark Gordon issued an Executive Order (EO) directing state agencies to take further steps to ensure Wyoming’s elections continue to be safe and secure.
“Recognizing the Biden/Harris Administration’s disastrous border policies compel us to do all we can to protect the integrity of our elections, I, alongside fellow Republican Governors, have taken the action afforded to me by the Constitution and the Laws of Wyoming to confirm the security of Wyoming’s elections,” Governor Gordon said.
“I remain confident Wyoming’s elections are the most secure in the nation,” the Governor added. “As required by the laws enacted by the legislature, our county clerks are thorough and diligent when determining, investigating and verifying voter citizenship. With this Executive Order, I reaffirm my commitment to that ideal.
Residents can be confident that this order removes any confusion and clarifies for our agencies – should there be any doubt – that they will not enable or facilitate any noncitizen to register to vote or help them to vote.”
Executive Order 2024-11 directs State agencies to take a variety of actions to ensure that non-citizens do not vote or register to vote. State agencies may not provide voter registration materials to non-citizens and must confirm that they are not required to provide those materials to non-citizens when contracting with federal programs or agencies.
In addition, the EO encourages the Secretary of State and the County Clerks to continue to effectively and efficiently use the tools provided to each of them by Wyoming’s election code to investigate and verify voter registration. The Wyoming Constitution requires every person to be a citizen of the United States before they can legally register and vote in Wyoming.
As he did earlier this year, the Governor continues to urge the legislature to provide clarity on the definition of the term “bona fide resident.” Wyoming’s county clerks have indicated to the Legislature that this clarification is needed, and the Governor agrees.
In response to Governor Gordon’s Executive Order 2024-11, Secretary Chuck Gray made the following statement:
“I’m glad that Governor Gordon appears to be retreating from some of his previous wrong statements regarding our election integrity efforts. The Governor’s statement and executive order show he may be beginning to take the issues we previously identified with the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional use of executive action to convert federal agencies into vote harvesting operations seriously. But this statement and executive order do not address in any way the problem he created when he vetoed our rulemaking in April, which would have been the key fix to stop illegal aliens from voting. Wyoming needs proof of residency and citizenship verification for voting to ensure that only Wyomingites are voting in Wyoming elections. As I have previously said, we also need a durational residency requirement. I continue to hope that Governor Gordon will agree to work with us and the legislature to actually address the problem head-on.”
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