Wyoming Crossover Voting Had Little Impact

There was a heck of a lot of crossover voting in Wyoming last Tuesday.

It wasn't just Democrats registering as Republicans. There are independents, Librarians, and Constitution Party members that became Republican for a day.

So how much of an effect did it really have?

Looking at the numbers it appears that crossover voting did not really have an effect on this last primary election.

In the most high-profile race, the battle to unseat Liz Cheney from Wyoming's U.S. House, crossover voting did not help Cheney who lost BIG!

During last Tuesday's primary, only 8,194 people voted in the Democratic primary. There were only two contested state-level Democratic races on Tuesday, with each winner garnering less than 200 votes. (Cowboy State Daily).

There was a slight bump in the numbers in the GOP race for the Governor's nomination. But even without that bump, Gordon would have won.

Some believe that Gordon became governor because of crossover voting. But the numbers show that not enough people crossed from other parties to affect the outcome of that primary, 4 years ago.

Despite the fact that crossover voting does not affect these races much there is still a push to put an end to it. It is seen as unethical.

The way this is supposed to work is that, during the primary, each party selects its candidate for the general election.

It is not the fault of Wyoming's Republican party the 3 other political parties in the state can't get enough support to win.

Or that they can't even find someone to run for many offices in a heavily conservative state like Wyoming.

The legislation was offered in Wyoming's last legislative session to put an end to crossover voting. It died before it had a chance. But that bill will be offered up again in this upcoming session.