Laramie County Poll Watchers Defend DOJ Monitors After Primary Election

Wyoming Poll Watchers Say DOJ Election Monitors Were Courteous During Primary

Three Republican poll watchers who monitored the August 18 primary election in Laramie County say federal Department of Justice monitors who entered polling places behaved courteously and innocuously, contradicting concerns raised by state officials.

The presence of DOJ monitors during the primary election has sparked significant controversy, culminating in an opinion issued by Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz concluding that their presence inside polling stations was unlawful. As the state moves toward the Tuesday general election, federal monitors are barred from coming within 100 yards of polling places and have reportedly agreed to maintain that distance. Under a directive issued by the Laramie County Clerk’s Office following its review of the attorney general’s opinion, monitors are also prohibited from interviewing anyone who does not wish to participate, and county sheriffs hold the authority to intervene if any disruptions occur.

Despite the official pushback, the GOP volunteers stationed at various Laramie County polling locations on August 18 offered calm assessments of the federal presence to Cowboy State Daily.

Celeste Simmons, who observed operations at the Storey Gym polling station from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., described the two monitors she encountered as respectful and professional. “They were very nice, they were professional, courteous, respectful,” Simmons said. She noted that the two young men, dressed in white shirts and black slacks, spoke briefly with a clerk’s staffer, took directions to the poll watchers’ table, and sat quietly for about 15 minutes without showing any signs of aggression.

Simmons recalled asking the men who they worked for, to which they replied they were with the DOJ Civil Rights Division. When she jokingly asked if they enjoyed working for Harmeet Dhillon, the department’s assistant attorney general, one monitor answered that they liked following the Constitution and the law. She told Cowboy State Daily that she was disappointed the monitors’ visit had been cast as disruptive, adding bluntly, “This is stupid.”

Contrasting Accounts of the August 18 Primary Deployment

Other volunteer observers reported similarly uneventful visits. John Frank, representing the Laramie County GOP at North Christian Church from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., watched two men and later a woman arrive to observe proceedings. “Quite uneventful,” Frank said, adding that he doubted anyone outside of the election workers even noticed them. He observed the voting area rather than the check-in tables, noting the monitors stayed for roughly 45 minutes before leaving. Chris Self, stationed at the Davis Romero polling location, similarly observed monitors enter and sit at the poll-watching table before his shift ended.

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DOJ deploys poll watchers to Lee County

Those firsthand accounts stand in sharp contrast to the assessment delivered by Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee, who criticized the federal deployment as a poorly managed exercise that arrived with virtually no advance notice. Lee stated in August that monitors did not offer their credentials until requested and that she later learned from a Washington DOJ official that the short-notice deployment may have suffered from an email sent to the wrong address. The agency’s stated objective was to assess compliance with federal civil rights and voting rights laws by interviewing voters, a plan Lee rejected because local rules bar interviews inside polling locations.

While Wyoming law permits political parties to select poll watchers, state law generally restricts unnecessary personnel from entering the voting area in order to maintain order. Attorney General Kautz’s opinion affirmed that county clerks possess both the freedom and the duty to keep unauthorized individuals out of the process. Although Lee did not accuse the monitors of being loud or violent, she maintained that their unannounced arrival showed a disregard for state election administration.