Election Conversations: Sen. Cale Case, Wyoming

Election Conversations: Sen. Cale Case, Wyoming

Case was part of the largest class elected to the Wyoming Legislature. He'll begin his 34th regular session in 2027.

NCSL's Elections and Redistricting team is interviewing local election officials and legislative election leaders to highlight the work they're doing to improve election policy and administration. To see other installments in this monthly series, visit Election Conversations.

Cale Case decided it was time to run for office when Wyoming enacted a reapportionment bill that moved the state to single-member districts in 1992.

"There was lots of opportunity for new people to get in the Legislature, so I was part of the largest elected class that Wyoming ever had," says Case, who served in the House for six years before becoming a senator.

He has spent many years serving on the Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee in both chambers, and later became the Senate chairman. He'll begin his 34th regular session in 2027, which means he will have spent nearly half of his life in the Wyoming Legislature.

NCSL spoke with Case about recent changes to elections in Wyoming and other election-related issues, along with his favorite part of being in the Legislature.

In recent years, Wyoming has enacted laws on voter registration requirements, list maintenance procedures and post-election audits. Tell us about those changes.

It's a complicated landscape. I think that constituents have concerns that may be rooted in something that's not really true. By all accounts, Wyoming has had marvelously clean elections. We're not a very big state; we have a county-based system that is amazing, and we've only had four instances of attempted fraud. Sometimes we've had errors where people got the wrong ballot, or occasionally persons who are not entitled to vote attempted to vote, but usually that's by mistake. For example, if you were a felon in a state that automatically restores rights upon release from incarceration, and you move to Wyoming and vote, you may not be eligible to vote yet in the state.

A lot of accusations of fraud and election irregularities across the country have spilled down to the Wyoming constituency, and people are very concerned. Elected officials in Wyoming have run on these accusations, which has resulted in lots of legislation from those who have election integrity high on their list. What they tend to not recognize is that we already have elections with incredibly high integrity.

Some are advocating for getting rid of machine-count tallying and drop boxes, and we've managed to hold back on making these changes. Another area I'm concerned about is increased requirements to participate in elections, which may have the effect of disenfranchising folks. There have also been attempts to maintain the current party power by moving registration deadlines for primaries before the candidate filing period. As this has become the landscape, it's become a job of mine-and a job that all election leaders, no matter the state-to build confidence in elections. We have good elections with commonalities across the country.

How do you work with your local election administrators in Wyoming?

These election systems are based on some very important people-your local election officials. Here in Wyoming, they're county clerks, and they do an incredible job with extremely high standards. They show people how the process operates, and they understand every single detail. Our clerks in Wyoming have a great relationship with the Legislature, and all 23 clerks are part of the Wyoming County Clerk's Association. Most of the clerks have been in the office for a considerable amount of time and came up through the ranks at their offices. I live in a small town, and I've known my county clerk since I dated her sister in high school, which is just the close-knit feel we have in Wyoming.

This year, Wyoming passed a bill that requires a hand-count post-election audit of a certain percentage of votes cast. I thought it seemed a bit superfluous given that we already run a post-election audit, but my county clerk talked to me about it and felt that it was a good way to show people how everything works. So, the bill came from the county clerks, and I'm excited about that.

How do you think legislators and election officials can work together better?

There are several key factors. First off, legislators need to pay attention to what election officials are saying. We tend to think we have a problem, but we may not even understand how the system works. Secondly, I encourage election officials to get involved before the session rather than changing the course of people's thinking during session. We need to spend the time going back and forth on changes before the session starts rather than when legislation comes up during session. Legislators are busy, especially during session, and understanding that is relationship 101 when working with policymakers.

As a member of NCSL's Election Leaders Program and the vice chair of the Elections and Redistricting Standing Committee, what have you learned from your counterparts in other states?

I can't say enough about my colleagues in these programs-we learn so much from each other. I always learn something from them that I try to bring back to Wyoming. We've been to meetings all around the country. Last year, we went and learned how they do elections in Alaska, and we went down to our neighbors in Colorado, where it was amazing to see how many volunteers they have-something that we don't have a ton of in Wyoming. We also saw how they verify ballot signatures in a meaningful way, and I'd like to think more about that for Wyoming.

In another memorable meeting, we talked about how elections moved forward during Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. It was an extraordinary undertaking, and we learned about the emergency procedures they followed to get polling places open. They had amazing thoughts about contingencies in disaster that all of us election leaders can take back with us. I am very impressed with the thinking that my colleagues have and what they're all doing to make sure we have the best elections in the world-and we do!

What is your favorite part about being a legislator?

My favorite part is being able to accomplish things that actually help people. It could be something as small as a constituent service to help someone, or it could be a piece of legislation that reaches to the heart of something that changes someone's life. It just doesn't get any better than that. I love my colleagues, and I love the professional lobbyists, too. I find them to be inspiring and dedicated. We have the smallest staff in the country, but they're extremely high caliber. I'm very proud of the Wyoming Legislature. I'm really grateful to be able to do this, and I've gotten better at it. I'm not the angry young man I used to be, and I think I'm more collaborative and more thoughtful in my approaches. There's a maturity you develop when working on legislation and trying to see someone else's viewpoint.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.