Wyoming residents will soon need to provide proof of citizenship and residency when registering to vote following Gov. Mark Gordon’s decision Friday to allow a bill to become law without his signature.
Set to go into effect in July, the law makes Wyoming the first and only state to require proof of citizenship as part of its voter registration.
The new law also requires residents, for the first time ever, to attest that they’ve lived in the state for at least 30 days before casting a ballot. That requirement clashes with both the Wyoming Constitution and federal law, Gordon wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Chuck Gray who pressed for the measure.
“I cannot sign it as such,” the governor wrote of the new law.
The legislation was one of 45 election-related bills filed by lawmakers in the 2025 general session. The new restrictions were a top priority for Gray and the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, both of which chalked up Gordon’s decision as a win.
“Proof of citizenship and proof of residency for registering to vote are both so important,” Gray said in a press release. “Only United States citizens, and only Wyomingites, should be voting in Wyoming elections. Period.”
The new law is “also key in supporting President Trump’s pivotal work to have proof of citizenship for registering to vote with the SAVE Act at the federal level,” Gray wrote.
In the days leading up to Gordon’s decision, Gray called on the governor to sign the bill via social media posts and an op-ed published in Cowboy State Daily.
American Action Fund — a Texas-based nonprofit with ties to Make Liberty Win, a Virginia-based political action committee — added to the public-pressure campaigns with text messages to Wyoming voters.
Last year, Gray sought to enact such requirements outside of the lawmaking process by adopting them via executive rulemaking. But Gordon rejected the rules on the basis that they exceeded the scope of the secretary’s legal authority. The governor referenced this in his Friday letter to Gray.
“Because it is laudable to continuously improve our standards for identification, I am thrilled that this legislation now gives the Secretary of State the authority he was trying to usurp by passing rules he had no authority to pass last spring,” Gordon wrote. “The will of the Legislature is finally clear on this point.”
Gray also had harsh words for the governor in a text to WyoFile calling the new law “the culmination of over 2 years of back and forth with an insider, very weak Governor.”
It will now be up to Gray to determine via the rulemaking process what documentation counts as proof of residency. As for proof of citizenship, the law specifies nine different options including a birth certificate, a valid United States passport and a Wyoming driver’s license.
Currently, the voter registration process only requires citizens to provide proof of identity and to attest that they reside in Wyoming and are U.S. citizens.
Requiring voters to reside in a county for 30 days before an election has drawn legal fights in other states. Critics have argued that a durational residency requirement disenfranchises voters who move to a state or a new county or precinct in fewer than 30 days before an election.
Gordon’s concerns and assurances
“If this Act simply dealt with clarifying the statutory authority for rulemaking requiring proof of residency and citizenship to vote (already constitutionally required), there would be no need for this explanation,” Gordon wrote of his letter. “Unfortunately, that is not the case.”
Under the Wyoming Constitution, voters must be 21 years old, a state resident for at least one year and a resident of the county in which they seek to cast a ballot for at least 60 days. But those requirements are not upheld, as Gordon pointed out, “by the recognition of the supremacy of United States law.”
The U.S. Constitution, Gordon noted, was amended in 1971 to establish 18 as the voting age requirement, which is how Wyoming elections are now run despite the state constitution stipulating 21.
As for a durational requirement, Gordon called 30 days “arbitrary” since it does not comport with the one year specified in the Wyoming Constitution.
“If the Legislature is already willing to test the bounds of legal propriety, they might as well respect original construction,” he wrote.
Gordon also pointed to federal statute that prohibits a U.S. citizen from being barred from voting in a presidential election because they do not meet a durational residency requirement established in state law. The governor’s letter notes that the competing legal language could lead to lawsuits.
“Whether the federal or state statute will prevail in a legal contest is a question that will have to be resolved in court,” the governor wrote.
Gordon also took the opportunity in his letter to reiterate his confidence in Wyoming’s elections.
“Our elections are precious, and those that have served as election judges and clerks over the years should be complimented for the diligence they have brought to this important task,” he wrote, “I have both won and lost elections in this state. I have never whined about the outcome or sought to reengineer the process. I believe the results even when they don’t go my way.”
The legislation was the last remaining bill from the 2025 general session that awaited a decision by the governor. He had until midnight Friday to take action.
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