The Republican governor of deeply conservative Wyoming is vowing to open an investigation into federal election monitors who invaded his state, according to a new report.
Two election monitors from the Justice Department showed up at polling places during Wyoming's primaries last week, drawing outrage from the state's Republican governor, The New York Times reported Friday.
"It was aggressive, unexpected, disruptive — certainly didn't seem to show respect for the state," Gov. Mark Gordon (R) complained. "We're going to get to the bottom of it as best we can."
Federal election monitors arrived without notice at a polling site in Cheyenne, Wyoming’s capital, about 7 a.m. last Tuesday, Laramie County clerk Debra Lee told the New York Times.
The monitors' demands to interview voters and inspect machines were denied, the Times reported.
"The Justice Department often monitors polling sites during elections," the report noted. "But the visits to Wyoming came amid President Trump’s ongoing fixation with finding evidence of fraud and vote tampering."
The president and his allies have made claims that voting machines switched votes in 2020, and "he has tried and failed to find evidence of widespread fraud or vote tampering ever since," the report stated.
Gordon, described by the Times as "low-key," is a term-limited Republican who leads one of the country's most conservative states, and made the case that he has long spurned federal intrusions.
"I feel very strongly about the federal government coming in and taking our guns — I don't like that," Gordon said at a meeting with state election officials. "And I don't like the federal government coming in and taking our votes, either."
The monitors ultimately visited six polling places, showing their credentials only when asked for them. Gordon described their behavior as "very odd" and said he had asked the state attorney general, Keith Kautz, to investigate the matter, the Times is reporting.
