Absentee ballots to be counted early

On the authority of Secretary of State Ed Buchanan, the process of counting votes for the primary will start a little early this year. A directive sent to county clerks across Wyoming permits the processing of absentee ballots a few days before the election.

The directive is intended to address the fact that a high number of voters are expected to opt for the absentee ballot method for this year’s primary due to the pandemic.

“An influx of absentee ballot requests and absentee ballots returned to the county clerks as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, has placed an undue burden on county clerks to fulfill their statutory requirement of processing absentee ballots only on Election Day and to provide election results to the Secretary of State’s office on Election Night,” says the directive.

“Therefore, since the novel coronavirus has significantly interfered with the ability of county clerks to carry out their statutory requirement for processing absentees in the 2020 Election Year, this directive provides necessary relief to the burden realized as a result of this pandemic.”

Buchanan has authorized county clerks to begin processing absentee ballots on August 13 and 14 during regular business hours. The results, however, will not be released or incorporated into the final vote count until the polls close on August 18.

County Clerk Linda Fritz will be taking advantage of the directive to ensure that this county’s votes can be tallied promptly after the polls have closed.

“We will be processing absentees from 2 to 5 p.m. on Friday, August 14. This will be conducted in the Commissioner Room,” she says.

“It will only be the process of entering the voter in the poll book. We will open envelopes and run them through the tabulator on the day of election.”

This process will be open to the public and Fritz welcomes anyone who would like to observe. However, viewers must follow certain rules.

Observers must report and sign in and wear an official badge, and be escorted to the designated observer areas by election staff. You may not be a candidate or candidate’s committee chair (with the exception of precinct committeemen and women).

Observers must remain silent, not interfere with the activities of the election workers and stay at least six feet away from absentee processing tables. Viewers may not handle any ballots or election materials.

All questions must be directed to a designated supervisory staff member. Observers must keep confidential any results they witness until after 8 p.m. on election day.