Some Wyoming voters have no clue who they’re voting for

I did an informal exit poll outside Storey Gym in Cheyenne on Aug. 18, Wyoming’s primary election day. I’ve conducted similar polls to spot voting trends for various media outlets, usually in presidential election years, but what I found this time genuinely surprised me.

About half of the 30 people who I asked to participate declined, which is comparable to what I’ve experienced in other elections. Several said their vote was sacred and they didn’t want to discuss it with anyone. I backed off immediately because privacy is their right.

I thanked everyone for voting as they walked away. That’s probably not something most media poll takers do, but it seemed like the right thing to say to people who showed up to vote.

But of the 50% who willingly participated in my exercise, about one-third couldn’t remember who they voted for in the two major primary races for governor and the U.S. House. This was just minutes after they cast their ballots!

Several asked who their choices were in the Republican primary, which both had contested races for those positions — four candidates for governor and nine for the U.S. House seat. I read their list of options, and while some remembered their choices right away, others were clearly guessing.

A few explained that they entered the polling place with a list of who to vote for, but they couldn’t find it. It sounded like they asked someone to tell them who to vote for and they dutifully checked those names on the ballot.

My results weren’t published, and I purposely didn’t get any voters’ names because it was a voluntary poll and I didn’t want to discourage anyone from participating. But I came away with two conclusions: Exit polls aren’t worth the time and effort it takes to do them, and I vow never to do one again.

But I don’t know what to think about voters who didn’t even know who they just voted for. That was a new one for me, and the sample size was so small I don’t know if it was a trend or I simply ran into a batch of random voters who were clueless about the candidates despite nonstop campaign advertising.

I’ve voted in every election I could since I became eligible in 1974, when I was 19. I know there are many people who have done the same thing once they could register to vote.

But Wyoming needs more voters. The state ranked 37th in 2024 for its 63.8% of registered voters who cast ballots. Washington, D.C. was first with 79.5% participation. We can do better.

Every year as it comes closer to the general election, political columnists and others write about the importance of voting. That should particularly resonate for Wyomingites, whose lack of participation in the 2024 primary changed the course of the state’s history for the worse.

Only 27% of the state’s eligible voters cast a ballot. As a result, the Freedom Caucus was able to win enough House primary races to enable it to take control of the chamber — even though only a total of 9% of the eligible voters in the primary cast a ballot for Freedom Caucus candidates.

The percentage of eligible voters who went to the polls in the 2026 primary jumped to 33%. When a party is internally split, as the GOP is between the far-right Freedom Caucus and traditional Republicans, elections are decided by which faction’s supporters show up.

In this year’s primary, after two years of watching the Freedom Caucus try to dismantle parts of state government, like the Department of Health, Wyoming Business Council and University of Wyoming, no more than 10 caucus members and their allies stand a chance of being elected to the House next year.

I suspect that the Freedom Caucus, which was cocky enough to predict it would also take over the Senate, decided it didn’t need to work any harder. Its leadership didn’t understand the depth of displeasure many voters had with cutting budgets just for the sake of cutting, nor did they grasp the loyalty people have to an institution like UW.

I think it’s the Fourth Estate’s job to encourage people to do their civic duty by doing a better job explaining how the results may affect them. Here’s a sample of what I see in Wyoming:

• Proposition One is a ballot initiative that would cut residential property taxes by 50%. It presents a clear choice for voters — if approved, wealthy owners of the most expensive homes will get huge property tax cuts, while local governments and special districts will have to cut essential services like law enforcement, fire protection, road and bridge construction and many more.

• Wyoming’s Republican Party was so worried that Democrats would choose who won their primaries that they changed the law so voters must declare what party they belong to before any candidates officially file for office.
  
  There weren’t enough Democrats who changed to Republicans in the August primary to pick the party’s U.S. House nominee, Secretary of State Chuck Gray. Though the GOP had a hissy fit over Mark Gordon knocking off two conservatives and winning only one-third of the vote in the 2018 gubernatorial primary, Gray only won 25% of primary votes.
  
  It will be interesting to see Gray’s percentage in the general election. He’s one of the state’s most polarizing candidates, he skipped the only televised statewide debate and none of his eight opponents endorsed him. Is that bright red “R” behind his name all he or any other candidate needs?

• Many legislative races are close, and only a few votes can make the difference. In the 2024 Republican primary, veteran Sen. Jim Anderson of Casper had his hands full trying to ward off challenger Bryce Reece of Casper, a Freedom Caucus supporter. Anderson won by 30 votes, which changed the course of the Senate for two years. He represented the traditional wing of the GOP, and held the 16th seat in the chamber against 15 far-right senators.

• The downballot races are where county and city officers, school board and community college board trustees and other officials are elected. Local contests have much more of a day-to-day impact on Wyomingites than who is elected governor or to Congress.
  
  In many communities, party membership doesn’t make as big of a difference for voters as it does in the main contests that dominate the headlines. Many local offices are also nonpartisan.

I’d like to see more voters know the issues and decide who would best represent them. It’s the news media’s responsibility to provide accurate news coverage, but it’s up to individuals to register to vote, do their homework, learn about the issues and get to know what candidates stand for.

I’m not counting it as a win for society if Wyoming keeps adding people who just fill in their ballots based on party loyalty or a list someone gave them. 

In the U.S. it’s “one person, one vote;” not one person and innumerable votes depending on how many cousins and friends are willing to turn their suffrage over to them.