Out of 8,491 people who cast ballots during the Aug. 16 primary, four people were “flagged” at the polls on election day.
Out of 8,491 people who cast ballots during the Aug. 16 primary, four people were “flagged” at the polls on election day.
Almost everyone who wanted to voted without issue in Teton County’s 2022 primary.
Out of 15,940 registered voters, 8,491 cast ballots. Teton County Clerk Maureen “Mo” Murphy said four people were “flagged” at the polls on election day.
Three of those four were potential felons flagged by the Department of Corrections. Each turned in provisional ballots, Murphy said, and had one day to return to the clerk’s office with proof that their vote had been restored.
Until 19 years ago, felons in Wyoming could not vote at all. The last time state lawmakers tinkered with those rules was five years ago. As of July 1, 2017, convicted, first-time, nonviolent felons automatically have their right to vote restored if they have completed their sentence on or after Jan. 1, 2010.
Those who completed their sentence prior to Jan. 1, 2010, or who have an out-of-state federal conviction, must apply to have their vote restored.
When Wyomingites vote, their names are checked against social security, the Department of Corrections and the Wyoming Department of Transportation to ensure they are a real person, not a felon, that they haven’t recently died and are of legal voting age.
Wyoming’s voter rolls also are “purged” every election cycle. If someone didn’t cast a ballot in the last election, they have to re-register to vote.
If someone is flagged while trying to vote, or if they’ve forgotten their identification, they’re given a provisional ballot which is put aside in a secure envelope and kept out of voting machines until that person brings proof they can vote.
For the three potential felons, none brought back proof that their vote had been restored. So their ballots were not counted.
The other person flagged was Eliska Garcia, and not for the first time, for being a potential noncitizen.
Garcia grew up in the Czech Republic and has lived in Teton County since 2010. She became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 2014 and said she’s voted in every election since.
In 2016 Garcia was flagged along with 59 other Teton County residents after the state’s voter registration database was cross-referenced with Wyoming Department of Transportation files, according to State Election Director Kai Schon.
The News&Guide reported that 20 of those 59 were people who had not voted in the last general election. At least 28 went to the clerk’s office to verify their status.
Some of the people notified that they’d have to prove their eligibility to vote had been integrated into WYDOT’s noncitizen database and never taken out when they became citizens, Schon said at the time, which is the reason proof of citizenship was requested of “previously” registered voters.
One flagged Jackson resident in 2016, Gina Valencia, was married to a U.S. citizen and became a citizen in 2010. She had voted in five elections before being flagged and being asked to prove her citizenship again. She told Wyoming Public Radio that WYDOT had a copy of her U.S. passport on file.
“I provided the information,” Valencia told WPR at the time. “And despite the facts, that you know that people could look in my records and see that I have proven to be a U.S. citizen, to be questioned about it and to have my name flagged that was the thing that was upsetting.”
She didn’t vote in the primary as a result, she said.
Like Valencia, Garcia was flagged in 2016 when she received the same letter from the Teton County Clerk saying the state marked her as a “potential non-citizen.”
Eight years ago, Garcia did go home to dig up her certificates and came back to successfully cast her ballot, but she felt slighted.
“It just makes you feel like you’re a second-class citizen,” she said. “It’s just not right.”
On primary day in August, Garcia took a break from watching her 4-year-old’s swim lesson to cast a ballot at the Rec Center. She was then told she needed to prove her citizenship for the second time in four election cycles.
Luckily, Garcia was carrying the passport card she’d brought in addition to her ID as backup. The election judge was able to confirm with Murphy that Garcia was a citizen and overrode the computer flag.
Within 10 to 15 minutes it was over, Garcia said, she’d voted and the problem was solved.
But Garcia’s mind was on the people who aren’t fluent in English.
“It’s embarrassing,” Garcia said. “Some people might think that I’m trying to vote when I really shouldn’t be voting.
“I would walk away if I didn’t understand what’s really happening.”
It was a big relief for her to learn that she was the only one reported to the county clerk for being flagged as a potential noncitizen.
Garcia said she’d take Clerk Murphy up on an offer to help navigate the tricky bureaucracy.
Come November, Garcia said, she doesn’t plan on voting early unless that’s what’s most convenient. It’s a matter of principle, as she said, to be treated as an equal citizen.
“I’m kind of stubborn,” she said.
For its part, the state doesn’t keep track of flagged voters from each county, State Election Director Schon said.
Contact Sophia Boyd-Fliegel at county@jhnewsandguide.om or 307-732-7063.
Sophia covers county politics, housing, and workforce issues. A Pacific Coast devotee, she grew up in Washington, studied in California and has worked in Oregon and Alaska.
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It's a shame that nothing can be done about residents with homes in two states who vote in both with impunity.
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