(Editor’s note: The following is not an exhaustive or comprehensive survey, but a series of snapshots from around the state. Many county clerks were not available for comment, because they were traveling home from state legislative meetings and training in Cheyenne, earlier this week. Other county clerk employees were busy dealing with lines of citizens wishing to register to vote or change their registration.)

   CHEYENNE - County clerk offices around Wyoming had a wide range of voter registration or voter affiliation changes to report today (Feb. 22), the deadline for Wyoming citizens to register or change party affiliation so they can participate in the Democratic caucuses on March 8.

   Hans Odde, the Hot Springs County Clerk in Thermopolis, reported nothing unusual. “This is a pretty conservative county,” he said, “so there’s not much interest in the Democratic caucus.” Over in Worland, Washakie County Clerk Mary Grace Strauch said business has been very slow this week.

 

  While northern tier counties are typically heavy with Republican Party membership, other counties in Wyoming reported a booming business this week in registering new voters, young voters and changing party affiliations – many to the Democratic Party.

 

  “Things have been crazy, just crazy today and this week,” said Hailey Dallas, with the elections office of the Albany County Clerk. “We’ve had a steady stream of people. My rough estimate is that we’ve registered, or changed registrations for about 400 people,” she said, as of Friday morning. Much of that gain was from a voter registration drive earlier this week at the University of Wyoming.
 

   In Natrona County, Elections Clerk Chris Lindsey tallied up 368 new, young or party affiliation changes this week. “We’ve had strong traffic on new and young registration,” she said.

 

   Debbye Lathrop, Laramie County Clerk in Cheyenne grabbed the files for Friday morning registration activity and counted 43 new voter registrations Friday morning and 32 party changes to Democratic advantage. “This is the most interest I’ve seen in 12 years, for a party caucus,” she said. Lathrop noted that Laramie County Community College had tried to arrange a voter registration drive for on campus, but their request came in too late.
 

   Sharon Nethercott, elections supervisor for Teton County, said her office was very busy this week, after the Barack Obama campaign opened an office in Jackson. “I’d estimate we’ve registered 250-to-300 new voters this week. I’ve got people standing in line right now, so I’ve got to go.”

 

   Lana Willcox, elections clerk for Uinta County in Evanston, said her office has registered 40 new voters since January. On party affiliation changes, she’s had one change to Libertarian, three to unaffiliated, 15 to Democratic and zero to Republican.
 

   “This is one of the most exciting periods we have seen in Democratic Party politics in Wyoming in a long, long time,” said Bill Luckett, communications director for the Wyoming Democratic Party. “We are delighted and almost overwhelmed with what we have heard about the increase in Democratic voter registrations over the past few weeks. This may be the first time in state history that we’ve had two presidential campaigns send staffers to Wyoming during the primary and caucus season. The enthusiasm for our fantastic presidential candidates is simply historic. We have seen record turnout for Democratic caucuses and primaries in other states, and it appears that we can expect the same here in Wyoming.”

 

   Amy Larimer, executive director for the Wyoming Republican Party, said the GOP experienced a big bump in registration and participation during their January county conventions.
 

   “We had 120 people show up at the Sweetwater County convention, which is unheard of. There’s a lot of excitement in both parties this year,” she said.
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