A bill to amend the Wyoming Constitution to prohibit certain dual citizens from voting has died.
Joint House resolution “citizenship-sole allegiance to the United States” sought to ban Wyomingites from voting if they are also citizens of a nation deemed to be a “foreign adversary.” It also would have banned people from holding office if they had “voluntarily acquired citizenship in a foreign adversary.”
The proposal was a narrower version of a new initiative from Secretary of State Chuck Gray which appeared in a broader form on a list of five priorities to change elections this year. Other initiatives included efforts to ban ballot drop boxes and require pen to paper ballots as the default method for voting.
In bills regarding property ownership, the Legislature has previously considered foreign adversaries to be defined by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. It includes China, Korea, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and Russia. Bill sponsor Rep. Joe Webb of Lyman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The bill’s demise came as a relief to Lawrence Calvin Todd, who lives in Meeteetse and was born in Cody. He got dual citizenship to Ireland a few years ago, he said, to connect with his immigrant grandmother. Though Ireland is not considered a foreign adversary, Todd said he found the broader effort discouraging.
“The notion that all of a sudden we’re going to slap nationalism to be a primary aspect of who somebody is and what they think and whether they can vote or not in Wyoming is repugnant to me,” Todd said.
Gray issued a statement of condemnation last week when the Wyoming Legislature failed to find a two-thirds majority vote to introduce most of these election integrity bills.
Gray said his proposals were directly inspired by President Donald Trump’s “election integrity work.” They come as some conservative Congresspeople are working toward similar goals.
In December 2025, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) introduced the “Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025.” The bill would more broadly prohibit any person from simultaneously holding citizenship in the U.S. and another country.
“I am extremely disappointed that a small minority of Democrats and insiders have chosen to kill
common-sense, conservative election integrity reforms that the people of Wyoming want,” Gray wrote.
Linda Baron, president of Wyoming’s League of Women Voters, sees the death of this and other election reform bills as a possible sign that the trend of trying to restrict voting access may be losing steam.
“We were gratified, but we were surprised,” Baron said of the legislature’s failure to move most election integrity bills forward.
And she thinks any voting limitations effect – be it in a nursing home or as a younger voter without ample forms of identification – won’t bode well for Wyoming’s democracy. That’s especially given the 2024 primary election turnout of 27%.
“We want to make it easier [to vote],” she said, “not harder.”
