EVANSTON — A large crowd gathered at the Strand Theatre on Thursday, March 30, to listen to Dr. Douglas Frank speak about election fraud. Frank is touring Wyoming, casting doubt on election integrity and urging citizens to speak to local officials about replacing existing voting machines with purely paper ballots.

Frank claims to have discovered several algorithms being employed to manipulate elections. He has spent the past two years traveling the country, meeting with grassroots organizations and citizens as an election fraud influencer.

After saying he is a world-renowned physicist, Frank told the audience they should “embarrass the local people who didn’t show up” and encouraged citizens to “call them on the carpet.” He reminded the audience that county officials work for them, not the other way around.

Donations from the audience were encouraged to help pay for Frank’s expenses and travel costs. Frank’s supporters have said that concern over election integrity is a nonpartisan issue. He said he invited the local county clerk to the presentation.

“I appreciated an invitation to meet with Dr. Frank, but chose to decline based on concerns that misinformation may be presented,” Uinta County Clerk Amanda Hutchinson told the Herald. “I believe that my attendance and ability to try to correct misinformation would only lead to a contentious and argumentative situation and, worse, I feared if I attended and did not speak up, my silence would be perceived as concurrence.”

Hutchinson assured that Wyoming’s elections are very secure.

“My staff and I work diligently to administer our county elections,” she said. “We put in countless hours and our whole hearts and souls into the process.”

Hutchinson said the voting equipment used in Uinta County cannot be accessed via the internet and the equipment is thoroughly tested with 100% accuracy prior to each election. Post-election audits were conducted in 2022 with 100% accuracy after both elections.

The voter registration system requires proper and accurate ID be presented by a voter in order to be registered, as well as a completed form with signature. Hutchinson said it has been difficult to educate the public on election security.

During the presentation, Frank displayed graphs claiming to prove his accusation of voter fraud. A member in the audience, high school math teacher Vern Hopkin of Evanston, said Frank’s information was contradictory.

“He was misinterpreting the graph,” Hopkin said, “and when I confronted him about this, he quickly moved on without addressing my point. I don’t understand the purpose of trying to get us not to trust our local elections and elected officials.”

Frank encouraged community members to knock on doors to ensure that head counts in households match voting records. He told the audience “I’m not just here to convince you there is fraud, I’m here to light fires, and then throw gasoline on those fires.”