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2005 General Session
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SF 70 provided the next step in moving Wyoming toward compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.
The HAVA, designed to reform our election process nationwide, called upon states to replace outdated voting systems, to educate voters on voting procedures and their voting rights, to make polling places more accessible to disabled citizens, to create statewide voter registration databases, to improve ballot review procedures, and to develop provisional ballots to guarantee that eligible voters are never turned away at polling places.
Last year and the year before, the Legislature took steps to move Wyoming toward compliance with the federal law, and to ensure that Wyoming qualified for federal grants to help pay for the reforms.
During the interim between the 2004 and 2005 legislative sessions, the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee (working with the Secretary of State’s office) was directed to revise Wyoming’s entire elections code to complete the task of conforming Wyoming law with the federal HAVA. The product of their interim work was SF 70.
SF 70 modified and clarified a number of definitions in the election code, modified provisions relating to voter registration, modified voter oath forms and procedures, and modified absentee registration and voting procedures.
Supporters noted that the election code changes proposed in SF 70 would complete the process of bringing Wyoming laws into full compliance with the HAVA.
There was minimal opposition to SF 70. The Senate passed the bill unanimously, and the House passed the bill with only one dissenting vote. Representative Bob Brechtel (R-H38, Casper) cast the single NO vote.