Mark Gordon asked the Wyoming Attorney General to look into DOJ election monitors in Wyoming after saying their conduct during Wyoming’s primary elections was aggressive and irregular. He raised the issue Wednesday as the state canvassing board met in Cheyenne to certify the results.
Gordon said, "To my knowledge, the U.S. Attorney was unaware of it, and it sounded like the behavior of the observers was a bit aggressive." He also said, "It just was irregular, and I have asked the attorney general to start looking into, you know, kind of the nature of the visits and all that sort of stuff."
Cheyenne canvassing board meeting
The governor framed his complaint around the observers’ presence in Laramie County last week, when Two Department of Justice attorneys were dispatched there as part of a monitoring initiative on Aug. 18. The Justice Department said the initiative was aimed at promoting transparency and an open flow of communication between poll observers and election monitors.
Gordon said local and state offices were not made aware of the federal observers, and he said the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security, the Wyoming Attorney General and the Laramie County Clerk’s Office were out of the loop. He said he did not think the U.S. Attorney for Wyoming was aware of the observers either.
Debra Lee in Laramie County
Clerk Debra Lee also voiced concern about the DOJ’s presence in Laramie County polling places. Gordon said he was not objecting to the observers, but he also said their behavior seemed to exceed the authority Congress had given them.
Chuck Gray disputed Gordon’s assertions, while Paul Raines said, when asked whether the secretary of state’s office had been notified ahead of election day, that "our office had received an email, but that’s the extent of communications I’m aware of."
Gordon said, "I’m not saying anything went wrong or anything else, and I certainly think the conduct of this election was phenomenal," leaving the complaint focused on how the observers acted rather than on the outcome of the vote. The attorney general’s review, if it moves forward, would center on the nature of the visits and whether the conduct stayed within the limits Gordon described.
