Wyoming governor signs voter ID bill

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon (R) on Tuesday signed into law a bill requiring state residents to provide identification when they go to cast a ballot.

The bill, HB0075, says that Wyoming voters must present “acceptable identification” when voting in person and that “in-person voters may be challenged for failure to present acceptable identification,” whether they choose to vote on Election Day or during early voting.

State Rep. Chuck Gray (R) was the primary sponsor of the bill, which nearly two-thirds of the Wyoming legislature co-sponsored.

“Today’s signing of my Voter ID legislation is a victory for the citizens of Wyoming,” Gray said on Tuesday, according to Cowboy State Daily. “It is a necessary function of our Republic to provide our citizens with confidence that our elections are secure, fair, and valid. I am proud that we were able to meet this important milestone for Wyoming.”

Identification including a valid Wyoming driver’s license, U.S. passport or Medicaid or Medicare insurance card will all be acceptable under the law.

“You really have every available type of identification to be used in this case, so no one has to feel like there’s an ID they can’t get,” Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Buchanan said during a Senate committee meeting last week, Cowboy State Daily reported. “One of the important things I emphasized early on this was in no way disenfranchising any voters.”

Under current Wyoming law, voters are only required to present identification when they register to vote and not when they go to cast their ballot in person, local news outlet KGAB reported.

The new law will go into effect on July 1 and will not apply to absentee voting.

It is one of several changes or restrictions unveiled at the state level by Republicans in the wake of the 2020 election. A sweeping elections reform package passed in Georgia has been met with strong backlash, with critics accusing it and similar proposals of being thinly veiled attempts at voter suppression.