Gray, Wyoming Freedom Caucus back Trump plans to ban mail-in ballots, voting machines

Wyoming’s chief elections officer is backing the Trump administration’s plans to restrict how voters are able to cast their ballots ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. 

In a lengthy Truth Social post on Monday morning, President Donald Trump announced he would “lead a movement” to stop states from using mail-in ballots and voting machines.

“Remember, the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes,” Trump wrote. “They must do what the Federal Government, as represented by the President of the United States, tells them, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR COUNTRY, to do.”

Such an executive order is likely to face legal challenges — the U.S. Constitution vests the power to determine the “times, places, and manner” of elections with the states. That was the case with Trump’s earlier executive order that would have required documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. A federal court temporarily halted the order in April. 

Shortly after Trump’s announcement Monday, Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray said he was in “complete and total support” of the president’s plans. 

“The election integrity measures President Trump outlined are very important and are supported by the people,” Gray wrote in a press release, pointing to similar legislation Wyoming lawmakers voted to sponsor last week.

The Wyoming Freedom Caucus also expressed its support on Monday. 

“Here in Wyoming, we’ve already led the way in advancing President Trump’s agenda by requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, enhancing voter list maintenance statutes, and banning ranked choice voting,” the caucus wrote in a post on Facebook.  

The caucus said it “will prioritize” pen-and-paper ballots as the default in Wyoming but stopped short of spelling out its stance on mail-in ballots. 

Meanwhile, Gov. Mark Gordon “continues to believe that Wyoming has the most secure elections in the nation,” Michael Pearlman, spokesperson for Gordon, told WyoFile. 

“I appreciate the President’s concerns and recognize that our Constitution chooses a Republican form of government over a centralized one,” Gordon wrote in a statement. 

Both the primary and general elections in Wyoming were unanimously certified by the state canvassing board — a committee on which both Gray and Gordon sit. Ahead of last November’s election, almost 90% of Wyoming adults said they expected their county’s tally of ballots for president in the 2024 election to be very or somewhat reliable, according to a University of Wyoming survey. 

Local election officials also say voter fraud is exceedingly rare. 

Lawmakers, however, have spent considerable time and resources in recent years aiming to revamp the state’s election system. Forty-five election-related bills were filed in the 2025 legislative session and one committee may choose to sponsor as many as 10 new bills modeled on failed 2025 bills in next year’s session. 

If Trump’s agenda is enacted — whether through an executive order or legislation at the state level — Wyoming’s elections could look dramatically different for some voters. 

Absentee voting, which accounts for both mail-in and early voting in Wyoming, is popular amongst Equality State residents. At least 45% of the state’s registered voters cast their ballots absentee in the most recent election.

Most states, including Wyoming, allow voters to request ballots that they can fill out at home and mail in or deliver via official dropboxes. Secretary Gray has been pushing to eliminate drop boxes in Wyoming, going so far as to say that state law does not currently allow for them. While county clerks have not taken a stance on banning ballot drop boxes, they have defended them as a longstanding, legal method for people to cast their ballots. Eight states and Washington, D.C., meanwhile, allow elections to be handled entirely by mail. Oregon, for example, credits its vote-by-mail system as increasing voter turnout and security.

As for voting machines, only Laramie County, the state’s most populous county, relies on them. More specifically, the county uses “express voting,” which has voters use a touchscreen to select their candidates. The machine then prints a ballot of their selections to be tabulated. But if they so wish, Laramie County voters may request a pen-and-paper ballot. 

Wyoming’s other 22 counties already use pen-and-paper ballots as the default. 

At the most recent Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, lawmakers debated the extent to which the federal government should play a role in Wyoming’s elections. 

Amid discussion on a bill to ban ballot drop boxes, Gray told the committee that such a policy “is a huge priority of the Trump administration.” 

Gray also said returning ballots via the postal service is “more secure and regulated” than ballot drop boxes. 

Soon thereafter, Jackson Democrat Rep. Mike Yin recalled Gray’s opposition to previous executive orders related to elections, including one during the Biden administration.  

“I think it was just two years ago we were talking about, ‘Why would we ever federalize our elections?’” Yin said. “So I do want to take issue with the, ‘Oh, this is the federal administration’s position, so this is my position, too.’”

“And I’m curious whether you think that our elections should be decided by Wyoming or should they be decided by D.C.?,” Yin said. 

Gray responded that he’d long opposed “the Biden-Obama-Harris attempt” to decrease rural post office services, which can deliver absentee ballots. When Yin interrupted to ask that “federal personalities” be kept out of the conversation, committee co-chairman Sen. Cale Cale, R-Lander, called a point of order. 

“We don’t need to drag in all the world’s politics into this discussion,” Case said. 

After last week’s meeting, Yin told WyoFile he’s “happy to get advice from the federal government if they want to find ways for us to have more people vote.”

“I think that can be a shared goal between the state and federal government,” Yin said. “But if the federal government is going to start dictating ways for us to prevent people from voting, I don’t think the federal government should be telling the state what to do.”

Several hours after Trump’s announcement, Wyoming U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman held a town hall in Casper. 

A constituent asked Hageman, a staunch ally of the president, about Trump’s forthcoming executive order. 

“So elections are run by the states,” Hageman said. “So I don’t know that President Trump is going to succeed at that.”