CHEYENNE - Wyoming county election officials appear to be well ahead of other states in how they prevent fraud with absentee ballots in nursing homes.

According to an article in Stateline.org, a new "mobile voting" program is being tested in Vermont to ensure elderly residents in nursing facilities get an opportunity to vote without risking voter fraud or abuse.

Helping seniors vote without the risk of fraud is important, because they are avid voters. In the last presidential election, at least 79 percent of people 65 and older cast ballots, compared to an overall voter turnout of 52 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Absentee ballots historically have been the biggest source of voter fraud, the article said, quoting Kim Brace of the political consulting firm Election Data Services. State and federal investigators have found numerous cases when nursing home employees have stuffed the ballot box by filling out ballots for the residents, he said.

Under the mobile voting plan being tested in Vermont, two specially trained voting officials, one from each political party, visit nursing facilities and personally assist residents who want to vote by helping them fill out ballots on site.

With two officials helping each resident, the likelihood of fraud or abuse is virtually eliminated, national election officials say.

In Wyoming, county clerks in three counties said they have been sending staff members, one from each party, to help nursing home residents to vote for years. None reported problems with voter fraud involving absentee ballots.

Laramie County Clerk Debra Lathrop said the manager of the nursing home has residents sign up if they want to get absentee ballots. The manager then gives the list to the clerk's office.

Lathrop said two election judges, one Republican and one Democrat, take the ballots to the nursing home so the resident can case his or her vote.

"Nobody else is there but the judges," Lathrop said.

Albany County Clerk Jackie Gonzales said her office has a similar system. She sends two staff members, who actually have more authority than election judges, to help residents who want to vote. She said she ensures that one is a Republican and the other is a Democrat.

The staff members require the residents who vote to personally place their ballots in the locked ballot box.

Gonzales said she is surprised Vermont election officials hadn't looked at that system until now.

Wyoming, she said, is proactive with its election procedures and laws.

"We've allowed for same-day voter registration. I realize there are other states looking at that and wonder how it works. We've had successes in the state of Wyoming with it. It seems like they're coming from behind," she said.

Converse County Clerk Lucile K. Taylor said the absentee voters system for nursing home residents, which is the same as Albany and Laramie counties, has been in effect since she took office in 1999.

Her office goes even further and will send out staff members to the homes of residents who cannot get to the polls because of a broken hip or some other injury.

Elderly residents have even shown up to vote in a vehicle with a bed in the back, she said.

"Our older population considers it a privilege to vote," she said. "I think counties do things to accommodate people that no one knows about."

Peggy Nighswonger, the state elections officer in the secretary of state's office, said there is nothing in Wyoming statutes to require the county clerks to help seniors in nursing facilities to vote.

An opinion from the attorney general's office says that the nursing facility must request the county clerk to come and conduct voter registration or bring absentee ballots.

"The clerk can't just go," Nighswonger said.

Neither the state division of economic analysis nor the secretary of state's office had statistics on the percentage of over-65 Wyoming residents who vote. Nighswonger said that information will be available in the future with the state's new system.

Contact Joan Barron at {M3joan.barron@trib.com or by phone at 307-632-1244.