Wyoming voter turnout in the primary election — among registered voters — was on pace with primaries going back to about 2016.
Of 273,705 registered voters, 150,359 cast a ballot, putting the primary election turnout rate at about 54.9%, state data shows. That’s a fraction more than the 2024 primary at 54.3%, but significantly lower than the 63.5% turnout rate in 2022 — a standout primary that pundits chalked up to Harriet Hageman’s Trump-backed bid to oust U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney that year.
Turnout among all eligible voters, however, looks much different.
Based on Wyoming’s voting-age population — last estimated by the state in 2024 at 454,508 — eligible voter turnout was closer to 33%. The state recorded a 27% turnout among voting-age residents in the 2024 primary, 40.8% in 2022 and 31.5% in 2020.
Total ballot tallies followed Wyoming demographics, with the most populated counties — Laramie and Natrona — counting 23,325 ballots and 17,744, respectively.
Registered voter turnout also followed the blend of political-and-population county characteristics.
Wyoming’s least-populated counties — Niobrara, ranked 23rd of 23 counties at about 2,400, 22nd-ranked Hot Springs (4,600) and 19th-ranked Crook (7,913) — also tend to have the highest percentage of registered Republicans. Those counties showed the highest percentages of ballots cast among registered voters: 69.6%, 69.4% and 68.7% respectively. Teton and Albany — with the highest percentages of registered Democrats — had the lowest percentages of total ballots cast, followed by Carbon County.
Of the 150,359 ballots cast, 88% were Republican and 9% were Democratic, which closely tracks Wyoming’s Republican-Democratic split among registered voters.
Always an area of interest in any Wyoming primary is whether crossover voting — voters changing their party affiliation to participate in the crowded GOP nomination process — might have factored into the results. Not only is it a sore point among hard-line politicos and some candidates, but drawing definitive conclusions from raw registration figures is rife with nuance.
Albany County, for example, listed 10,702 registered Republicans in January, and 11,130 on Aug. 1, while the number of registered Democrats shrunk from 4,400 to 4,119 during the same period, state data shows. But the 428 registration gain for Republicans can’t be directly tied to the 281 loss in Democratic registrations, considering first time registrations and people dying or leaving the state.
Lawmakers in 2023 passed a law shortening early and absentee voting from 45 days to 28 days. In an effort aimed at discouraging so-called crossover voting, lawmakers also passed in 2023 another law requiring voters wanting to change their party to do so before candidates for partisan positions begin filing for office.
This year, registered Republicans cast 132,705 ballots amid the high-profile battle between more moderate lawmakers and the hard-line Freedom Caucus-aligned faction of the party.
Casper resident Rexine Collins had a clear preference in the Republican ideological battle. Her priority, she told WyoFile, was “making sure we have very conservative, unapologetic Republicans in office.”
The caucus, which took over the State House in 2025, lost 13 incumbents in the House and failed to make significant gains in the Senate. Freedom Caucus-aligned candidates also failed to win nominations in all four contested executive seat races, including the governor’s office.
After casting her ballot at Restoration Church on Casper’s east side, a woman told WyoFile, “I’m voting against the people I don’t want in there.” Another voter in Evansville told WyoFile, “I just vote for the lesser of evils — the ones I think might do the least damage.”
Both parties are lead by leadership that embraces extreme positions instead of accepting that others with different points of view. The candidates and especially the WY GOP party follows the polarized national directives that are provided by out-of-state groups. A moderate is considered a sell out. Sorry but the world is not just black and white.
Why would one want to join the WY GOP in it’s present state where if one disagrees with the leadership that person is immediately insulted, bad-mouthed, and called a RINO? The WY GOP leadership communicated it’s preferred state leadership candidates prior to the primary (Bien, R Williams, S Smith and T Kelley) and they went 0-fer. Anyone think that the WY GOP leadership and FC leaders will do any introspection? It’s a circular firing squad.
And joining the DEMs in this state presently feels like a lost cause. I always tell my out-of-state friends that a WY DEM would be a GOP rep in most other states.
The Republican Party is the big tent party, but some of its members want a “purity” test. That is a road to ruin as putting Party principles above the rights of an individual to cast a vote is not the foundation of our country. I suspect it goes nowhere as whatever is proposed will be unconstitutional.
It is my belief that once Dobbs struck down ROE, each State had to deal with the question of abortion access and once that conversation was played out, people were tired of that focus from our legislature, so they got rid of those people leading that charge. I would be surprised if there were any bathroom or abortion bills in the next session.
Pretty pathetic that roughly 1/2 the eligible voters don’t care enough to show up. THIS is a bigger problem that who they vote for.
The Zen of Voting : not voting is also a vote
You’re right Bill. And the eligible voters who didn’t show up have no right to complain about anything they don’t like either.
Not true. It’s a waste of time to vote in Wyoming primaries if you don’t want to identify as GOP. True representation for us would be open primaries and Wyoming is one of only 13 states that require closed primaries. We are locked into being a one-party state where you can either join the State Party or shut up. And they recently enacted laws to make it even worse. That’s why Teton and Albany counties have low turnout. Their choices are uncontested or nonexistent.
Interesting I have never looked at it that way , I’m a reg republican but sure don’t agree with them .
The Wyoming GOP is increasingly resembling the Chinese Communist Party, where membership is by invitation only. Guv’mint of the people, by the people and for the people? Ya, right!
How about an open primary with ranked choice voting?
The ONLY reason I’m still registered as a republican in this state is so that I can cast my vote against people like Hageman, Barrasso, Gray, etc, etc. It’s certainly not that I agree with anything this party stands for anymore. Open primaries are the sane solution for creating a level playing field for the voters but it’s been a long time since Wyoming has done many things the sane, logical way.