Wyoming attorney general investigates DOJ poll monitors flagged as 'aggressive'

Two DOJ officials monitored poll workers during Wyoming’s Aug. 18 primary

Wyoming Attorney General Keith Kautz is investigating the conduct of two U.S. Department of Justice officials who monitored poll workers and observed voters in the state’s most populous county during the Aug. 18 primary, a spokesperson for Gov. Mark Gordon said Friday.

Kautz, who was appointed by the governor, is reviewing how the two officials behaved at polling locations, according to Gordon spokesperson Amy Edmonds. The specific conduct under review and the scope of the attorney general’s enforcement authority were not immediately clear.

Gordon, a Republican, raised the issue at a Wednesday meeting of the state board convened to confirm the primary results. In remarks at that meeting, Gordon described the monitors’ behavior as “a bit aggressive” and “irregular” in an otherwise routine proceeding in the mostly rural and Republican state, Edmonds said.

“I feel very strongly about the federal government coming in and taking our guns. I don’t like that. I don’t like the federal government coming in and taking our votes, either,” Gordon said at the meeting Wednesday.

Edmonds on Friday confirmed the attorney general’s investigation.

The Wyoming inquiry comes amid broader criticism of the Trump Justice Department’s election-related priorities. Voting rights groups have raised concern that the department has shifted away from enforcing civil rights laws with respect to voting, even as President Donald Trump has directed federal prosecutors to search for fraud in the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

State and federal authorities generally maintain distinct jurisdictional lanes over election administration, with the Constitution assigning primary authority over the conduct of federal elections to the states.

The Wyoming primary was held Aug. 18. The state board confirmed the results Wednesday, the meeting at which Gordon raised his concerns about the federal monitors. Edmonds confirmed Kautz’s investigation two days later.

The Wyoming inquiry follows the Justice Department’s earlier-in-the-month announcement of its expanded monitoring initiative. As MSI previously reported, the department has dispatched 75 monitors to more than 200 polling locations across five states this cycle — well short of its 1,000-monitor target for November. The Aug. 18 deployment announcement identified Laramie County, Wyoming, as one of two primary-day sites where Civil Rights Division attorneys would be present.