The Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office announced the number of persons who changed their party affiliation in the weeks before or on the date of the Aug. 21 primary election, according to a news release Thursday.

State Election Director Kai Schon urged people to be careful how they review the data.

"It is absolutely vital that anyone analyzing these party change numbers understand that these numbers are tied to a person’s voter registration and do not represent total ballots cast in the election, and that these numbers do not indicate for whom a person voted," Schon said.

 

From July 6 to Sept. 20, 12,509 persons changed their party affiliation:

  • 6,057 Democrats changed and registered as Republicans.
  • 4,355 Unaffiliated persons changed and registered as Republicans.
  • 744 Unaffiliated persons changed and registered as Democrats.
  • 477 members of the Constitution and Libertarian parties changed and registered as Republicans.
  • 430 Republicans changed and registered as Democrats.
  • 296 persons of various parties changed and registered as Unaffiliated.

Of those 12,509 persons who changed their party affiliation, 701 subsequently changed their party affiliation again and re-registered back to their original 2018 party affiliation.

The Wyoming Secretary of State reports of the 139,809 ballots cast, 117,752 were by Republicans, 19,459 were by Democrats, and 2,598 were nonpartisan.

Wyoming law allows people to change their party registration.

Party changes are entered into Wyoming’s voter registration system by county clerks and their staff. County clerks have until 30 days after an election to enter registration changes into the statewide database.

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