Thousands Change Party Affiliation for Primary

Over twelve thousand people in Wyoming changed their party affiliation for the primary election.
The Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office yesterday released data on the number of persons who changed their party affiliation on their voter registration in the weeks before or on August 21st, the date of the 2018 Primary Election.
Between July 6th and September 20th, the secretary of state’s office says that over 6,000 democrats changed and registered as republicans, and over 4,300 unaffiliated voters changed and registered as republicans, along with 477 members of the Constitution and Libertarian parties.
In Park County, 155 voters switched from Democrat to Republican, and almost 200 registered as Republican from an Unaffiliated status. Big Horn County saw a total of 154 people change their affiliation, and Washakie had 119, most of them switching to Republican from either Democrat or Unaffiliated.
There were a few voters in the state who went the other direction – 744 unaffiliated people and 430 Republicans registered as Democrats for the primary.
The office reports that of the 12,509 voters who changed their party affiliation, just over 700 of them changed it back to their original party.
State Election Director Kai Schon pointed out that these numbers are tied to a person’s voter registration and do not represent total ballots cast in the election. Additionally, these numbers do not indicate for whom a person voted.