With lower-than-usual voter turnout in Wyoming’s primary election on Tuesday, several legislative contests came down to very few votes. 

Fifty or fewer votes decided five House races, including northeast Cheyenne’s House District 9, where Rep. Landon Brown (R-Cheyenne) defeated challenger Exie Brown by 17 votes, according to the complete but unofficial election results. 

In the Senate, a closely watched central-Casper contest between Sen. Jim Anderson (R-Casper) and challenger Bryce Reece for Senate District 28 was decided in the incumbent’s favor by 30 votes. 

The closest race came down to seven votes. 

That was between Kevin Campbell and Edis Allen in House District 62 — which spans a portion of southeastern Natrona County and the western half of Converse County. The seat is currently represented by Rep. Forrest Chadwick (R-Evansville), who did not seek reelection. 

The margin was small enough to elicit a recount, which is required by state law when the margin between the top two candidates is less than 1%. 

Converse County conducted its recount Wednesday afternoon, while Natrona County did so Thursday morning. Both counties produced identical results to Tuesday — 794 to 787. Ultimately, Campbell prevailed. 

Malcolm Ervin, Platte County clerk and president of the County Clerks’ Association of Wyoming, said he was unaware of any other recounts occurring in legislative contests.

Joe Rubino, general counsel for the secretary of state’s office, told WyoFile HD 62 was the only legislative contest with a small enough margin to qualify for an automatic recount. Rubino did not say whether any statehouse candidates had requested a recount. 

Legislative candidates may request a recount, according to state law, but must do so no later than two days after the state canvassing board has certified the results, which is set to occur Aug. 28. 

By law, the requester foots the bill for the recount, unless the recount changes the election outcome.

Maggie Mullen reports on state government and politics. Before joining WyoFile in 2022, she spent five years at Wyoming Public Radio.

Join the Conversation

2 Comments

WyoFile's goal is to provide readers with information and ideas that foster constructive conversations about the issues and opportunities our communities face. One small piece of how we do that is by offering a space below each story for readers to share perspectives, experiences and insights. For this to work, we need your help.

What we're looking for: 

  • Your real name — first and last. 
  • Direct responses to the article. Tell us how your experience relates to the story.
  • The truth. Share factual information that adds context to the reporting.
  • Thoughtful answers to questions raised by the reporting or other commenters.
  • Tips that could advance our reporting on the topic.
  • No more than three comments per story, including replies. 

What we block from our comments section, when we see it:

  • Pseudonyms. WyoFile stands behind everything we publish, and we expect commenters to do the same by using their real name.
  • Comments that are not directly relevant to the article. 
  • Demonstrably false claims, what-about-isms, references to debunked lines of rhetoric, professional political talking points or links to sites trafficking in misinformation.
  • Personal attacks, profanity, discriminatory language or threats.
  • Arguments with other commenters.

Other important things to know: 

  • Appearing in WyoFile’s comments section is a privilege, not a right or entitlement. 
  • We’re a small team and our first priority is reporting. Depending on what’s going on, comments may be moderated 24 to 48 hours from when they’re submitted — or even later. If you comment in the evening or on the weekend, please be patient. We’ll get to it when we’re back in the office.
  • We’re not interested in managing squeaky wheels, and even if we wanted to, we don't have time to address every single commenter’s grievance. 
  • Try as we might, we will make mistakes. We’ll fail to catch aliases, mistakenly allow folks to exceed the comment limit and occasionally miss false statements. If that’s going to upset you, it’s probably best to just stick with our journalism and avoid the comments section.
  • We don’t mediate disputes between commenters. If you have concerns about another commenter, please don’t bring them to us.

The bottom line:

If you repeatedly push the boundaries, make unreasonable demands, get caught lying or generally cause trouble, we will stop approving your comments — maybe forever. Such moderation decisions are not negotiable or subject to explanation. If civil and constructive conversation is not your goal, then our comments section is not for you. 

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  1. Right on Rex.
    I also found it hard to stomach all the slander from the PACs in Wyoming and Virginia. That should be illegal.

    Reply

  2. The low voter turnout is unfortunate. There may be several reasons, which may be anything from lack of interest, disgust with the nastiness that increasingly surrounds elections, impediments to voting, e.g., having to present identifications, or lack of meaningful contests. Regardless of the reason(s), the more people who participate in our elections the better it is for our democracy and whatever the impediments are should be avoided or eliminated.

    Reply