Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

Just after I wrote about House Bill 141 and kudos that it had not been assigned to a committee, in fact probably about the time that the newspaper was getting off the press in Cody, it was sent to a committee.

House Bill 141, which tries to limit or prevent voters from switching party affiliation, has been assigned to the Corporations Committee and a sister bill, Senate File 163, has also been assigned to the Senate Corporations Committee. Testimony was heard Tuesday in the Senate committee with sponsor Sen. Bo Biteman and Secretary of State Chuck Gray both testifying in support of the bill.

Biteman, who has brought similar legislation in previous sessions said if the problem with crossover voting is not taken care of in this session he will keep bringing legislation back.

He called what happened in the 2022 election “an absolute debacle.” He noted that “they,” presuming he meant Democrats, made a “mockery of the primary election process by openly and actively” encouraging Democrats to become Republicans.

There were outside organizations advertising and promoting on Facebook asking Democrats to switch, specifically to support then Rep. Liz Cheney.

He said the only reason most Democrats would switch would be to influence the Republican primary election.

Biteman said Senate File 163 is called “election integrity” because this bill gets to the heart of integrity in election and there is “nothing ethical [about crossover voting] its basically cheating.”

He said this bill helps prevent the practice of one party picking the other party’s nominee.

This is Wyoming, not sure what he is talking about. Even if every Democrat switched it would still not equal all the Republicans in the state.

Gray told the committee that in 2022, on May 1 there were 45,095 registered Democrats and 196,888 Republicans. On Sept. 1, 2022, after the primary the Democrats dropped to “around” 30,000 and the Republican numbers jumped to 235,298.

So Democrats dropped by about 15,000 but Republicans jumped by 40,000. I am not a math wizard but something does not add up. Oh wait there were some independents or unaffiliated, like myself, that selected Republican as their party for the primary.

Perhaps there were some new voters registering (I know there were some in Washakie County who had never voted before), I know there were people who moved here between elections and had to register to vote.

So Mr. Gray can throw out numbers but unless he can identify all 40,000 from May 1 to Sept. 1 as crossover voters, his numbers just don’t hold the weight he would like them to.

On Sept. 1 there were 235,298 registered Republicans according to data from the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office. Aug. 1 there were 207,674.

On the Aug. 16, 2022, primary there were 172,047 registered Republicans voting, meaning nearly 40,000 Republicans did not even bother to vote in the primary election. Were they lifetime Republicans, new Republicans, newly registered voters? We don’t know, but we do know there were a lot of registered Republicans who did not cast a vote.

On Jan. 1, 2023, there were 233,292 registered Republicans in the state of Wyoming and 36,175 Democrats. Does this mean some who switched in August have not bothered to switch back? Will they switch in 2024? If they don’t switch back (because maybe they liked having their vote count or having a candidates to vote for with not many Democrats on the ballot at state or local levels) does it make Senate File 163 and House Bill 141 moot?

As a side note there are 29,732 unaffiliated as of Jan. 1, 2023, there 33,269 unaffiliated on Aug. 1, 2022, and 26,866 on Sept. 1, 2022, and to go back to May 1, using Gray’s comparison, 35,298 unaffiliated voters. Unaffiliated are almost back to their pre 2022 primary election levels.

Perhaps I am naïve or perhaps it is because I am an independent and prefer not to subscribe to any one particular political party and their beliefs, but I do not see crossover voting as an issue.

Yes, I am sure there were some who crossed over to vote for Cheney or maybe some local races, but those crossing over for Cheney knew, or should have known it was a lost cause. But let’s look, Harriet Hageman received 63,740 more votes than Liz Cheney. That’s more votes than the total number of registered Democrats on May 1.

Gov. Mark Gordon defeated his nearest challenger Brent Bien by 52,568 votes, again more than the total number of Democrats on May 1.

The race between Chuck Gray and Tara Nethercott was much closer with only about 12,000 votes separating them. Perhaps Mr. Gray did not think the race would be as close and that is his concern? Or perhaps it was the race for state superintendent with only abut 5,000 votes separating State Supt. Megan Degenfelder and then Supt. Brian Schroeder.

The only race I witnessed any promotion for Democrats to switch parties was the race for the U.S. House.

Perhaps the issue is at the local level, but I do not believe that is where the concern is coming from.

If Republicans are truly concerned about results perhaps they need to ensure that their own party comes out to vote.

Looking at these numbers I do not believe the crossover voting influenced the Wyoming elections as some Republicans would have us believe.

And, having said previously, I reiterate, voting is a constitutional right for men and women regardless of party affiliation.

Therefore, I would encourage legislators to vote no on these two pieces of legislation.