SF0108

Transitions Wyoming elections to paper ballots manually counted in public under uniform statewide standards, eliminating electronic voting machines and establishing comprehensive ballot security, custody, and counting procedures.

• Requires all votes to be cast on human-readable paper ballots designed for manual hand counting, with security features to prevent unauthorized duplication or substitution, and permits accessible voting devices only to produce one ballot per voter that is manually counted. (W.S. 22-6-201, Sec. 2)
• Establishes uniform statewide standards for secure production, transport, storage, and accounting of ballots, requiring documented chain of custody with recorded transfers, video surveillance of sealed ballot containers for at least 24 months, and public access to records. (W.S. 22-6-202, Sec. 2)
• Requires manual counting of ballots to occur in public view with observers from political parties, candidates, and the public permitted, with all counting areas recorded on video and audio, recordings retained for at least 60 months and made publicly available on county clerk websites. (W.S. 22-6-203, Sec. 2)
• Establishes statewide manual counting standards including counting teams of at least four members from at least two different political parties, oaths of impartiality, standardized training, separation of ballots into three categories (absentee, early, and in-person), independent tallies by multiple recorders, batch processing, ballot reconciliation, and prohibition of automatic counting equipment. (W.S. 22-6-204, Sec. 2)
• Requires absentee and early voting ballots to be separately verified, stored by precinct, and counted under the same security and manual counting standards as in-person ballots, with signatures and voter eligibility verified before ballot separation and provisional ballots counted after eligibility confirmation. (W.S. 22-6-205, Sec. 2)
• Requires manual counting to begin as soon as practicable after polls close and continue without undue delay until all ballots are tallied, reconciled and reported, with count totals by precinct made public within one hour of completion, and permits early counting of absentee and early voting ballots subject to secrecy and custody restrictions.