(TheLibertyRevolution.com)- Wyoming has passed a new voter ID law that will likely receive some complaints from both Republicans and Democrats.
Earlier this week, Republican Governor Mark Gordon signed the new bill into law. It will require all residents of Wyoming to show proof of identification when they cast a ballot to vote on election day.
The language of the bill, titled HB0075, says all Wyoming voters have to present “acceptable identification” when they decide to cast an in-person vote. It also says “in-person voters may be challenged for failure to present acceptable identification,” whether they decide to vote in-person on Election Day or during the state’s early voting period.
Chuck Gray, a Republican state Representative, was the primary sponsor of HB0075. Almost two-thirds of the state legislature co-sponsored the bill. As Gray said in a statement earlier this week:
“Today’s signing of my Voter ID legislation is a victory for the citizens of Wyoming. It is a necessary function of our Republic to provide our citizens with confidence that our elections are secure, fair and valid. I am proud that we were able to meet this important milestone for Wyoming.”
Under the law, valid forms of identification include a U.S. passport, Wyoming driver’s license and either a Medicare or Medicaid insurance card.
When talking last week during a Senate committee meeting, Ed Buchanan, the Wyoming Secretary of State, explained:
“You really have every available type of identification to be used in this case, so no one has to feel like there’s an ID they can’t get. One of the important things I emphasized early on, this was in no way disenfranchising any voters.”
Liberals may disagree with that statement, but they really don’t have a leg to stand on. While current Wyoming law didn’t require voters to provide identification when they cast a ballot in-person on Election Day, they are required to provide identification when they register to vote.
So, if people had an acceptable form of identification when they registered to vote, they should still have an acceptable form of identification when they go to cast their actual vote at the ballots.
Still, it’s likely that Democrats around the country will jump on the opportunity to criticize a Republican-backed voting bill as a way to push their narrative that voters are being suppressed.
A campaign like that got so huge in Georgia that all the good that bill did is shrouded behind misinformation and lies. It forced many large corporations to cave to the pressure and either come out to denounce the bill or boycott the state altogether as a result.
Hopefully, the same outcome won’t happen in Wyoming. Republicans in the state are simply looking for a way to strengthen the security of elections held there. They aren’t putting any new pressures on voters, since they already require proper identification to register to vote.
Some Republicans may feel like the law didn’t go far enough, as it won’t apply to any absentee ballot.
The new Wyoming law will go into effect on July 1.
