More than 12,000 Wyoming voters switched parties around primary

CHEYENNE – In the run-up to the state’s primary election Aug. 21, Wyoming saw thousands of voters change party affiliation, with the vast majority signing up under the Republican banner.

Between July 6 and Sept. 20, 12,509 voters switched their party affiliation, according to a report released Thursday by the Secretary of State’s Office. Of those voters, the Republicans gained 10,562 new affiliated voters, with 6,057 switching over from the Democratic Party and 4,505 unaffiliated voters opting to register with the GOP. Democrats saw 1,174 voters come their way, with 744 moving from a Republican affiliation.

This was the first time the Secretary of State’s Office has done a deep dive like this into affiliation changes in the run-up to a primary election, said Will Dinneen, spokesman for the office.

“There simply was a great public interest in the number of changes to party affiliations by voters. That interest was expressed in the media and by the public,” Dinneen said. “We have the capacity to do this, so we decided to produce the report.”

Read more: https://www.wyomingnews.com/news/local_news/more-than-wyo-voters-switched-parties-around-primary/article_a034fd9a-d4f6-11e8-b185-739ed0753a80.html