Wyoming Primary Saw Shockingly Low Voter Turnout

Tuesday's primary vote in Wyoming came with a few surprises.

Long-standing names in Wyoming politics were out.

Names we had never heard before will take their place.

The more conservative Wyoming Freedom Caucus made big gains in the Wyoming House and Senate.

There were not as many Democrats, Libertarians, or Constitution party members in the race as there have been in previous years.

What might have been most surprising was the low voter turnout.

This might have been the lowest turnout of voters since 2016, according to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office.

The count, so far, shows 122,693 ballots cast state-wide.

That might sound like a lot for Wyoming but it's only 60% of the voters that the state had in 2022.

Was it because we did not have big drama like when many in the state wanted Liz Cheney gone?

That might be one reason.

Then there is the issue with crossover voting.

In the past Democrats along with Libertarians, Constitution party members, and independents would jump to the Republican party, at the last moment, vote in the GOP primary, and then change back to their genuine affiliation afterwards.

Most of the folks who crossover voted complained that only Republicans were running in their district, so the real election in Wyoming was the primary.

On the other hand, the Republican party complained that this was other parties meddling in their primary. It's not the fault of the GOP that not one member of another party showed up.

With new rules in place to prevent crossover voting, perhaps many who normally did it just stayed home.

That might have been one reason why the Freedom Caucus won so big.