Thousands of Wyoming residents could be surprised on Election Day when they show up to cast a ballot only to discover they’re no longer registered to vote.
There are currently about 83,500 fewer registered voters in the state than at the end of 2022, a roughly 28% drop, according to data released Wednesday by the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office.
The sizable dip follows a mandatory voter purge that was likely magnified by a major shift in voter turnout between the 2020 and 2022 elections.
Wyoming law has long required county clerks to purge voter rolls each February, a process that involves removing voters who did not cast a ballot in the most recent election. So it’s not unusual for voter rolls to fluctuate. And, of course, some of that purge inevitably includes voters who have died or moved away.
Still, local election officials and nonprofit organizations are hoping to inform voters ahead of time to avoid frustration or having to turn them away at the polls.
“Our concern is simply people not realizing that they’re no longer registered and not bringing with them the appropriate materials to get re-registered, because you can register at the polls,” Tom Lacock with AARP told WyoFile.
While a Wyoming driver’s license or ID card, a United States passport, a tribal ID card, a U.S. military card and some student IDs would be sufficient identification to register and to vote, other forms of identification would not.
A Medicare or Medicaid insurance card, or a Wyoming concealed firearm permit, for example, would not allow someone to register to vote, but are acceptable IDs for already registered voters to cast a ballot.
Meanwhile, Secretary of State Chuck Gray said the provision requiring the purge has been in state law for more than 50 years.
“Voter roll hygiene and voter registry maintenance is extremely important to maintaining integrity and confidence in our electoral process,” he wrote in a statement to WyoFile.
Details
All 23 of Wyoming’s counties have experienced a decrease in registered voters since December 2022, according to the data.
Campbell County saw the biggest drop, losing 34% of its voter registrations, while the smallest decrease was recorded in Hot Springs County at 17%.
Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee pointed to a very high turnout in 2020 as one cause for the decline.
“And so our voter rolls were large. And then in 2022, we had record low turnout [in the general election],” Lee told WyoFile, which fits the convention that presidential elections draw more voters than the midterms.
“That’s why we ended up with so many people who were purged,” Lee said.
As is routine, Wyoming’s county clerks mailed notifications to the last known addresses of those who were set to be dropped from the voter rolls in 2023. This gave voters the opportunity to notify the clerk if they wanted to remain registered.
Thousands ended up purged anyway.
That included many who voted in 2022’s primary election, but not the general — which squares with another typical voting trend. The majority of races in Wyoming are effectively decided in August due to the state’s Republican supermajority.
Lacock said AARP is encouraging voters to contact their local county clerks to verify that they’re still registered, or ask any questions related to other changes to this year’s election.
The window for absentee voting — also known as early voting — is shorter than before for most voters, and there’s a new limit on when voters can affiliate with a political party.
The primary election is Aug. 20. Voter registration is now open. The last day registered voters can change their party affiliation is May 15. Unregistered voters, like those recently purged, can choose their party affiliation while registering, even if doing so after May 15, including at the polls on election day.
The candidate filing period runs May 16-31.
In response to Larry Skow:
Joe Biden has increased the national debt by 4.7 trillion compared to Donald Trump’s 8.18 trillion and most of the rest of his two letters contain dubious information.
I did not sign the petition to put RFK Jr. on the ballot in Wyoming but I am betting that many who did will find they were not actually registered voters. It will be interesting to see the rejection rate for RFK Jr. petitions, if Chuck can shut up about leftist plots long enough to do his job.
PITAFUL to have a law that allows “removing voters who did not cast a ballot in the most recent election.” Nothing like penalizing a person who could not vote for some reason. We want fair and free elections and yet we allow states to implement BS like this — this is what make voters very angry. I have a 91 year old mother that has to have lot of help from me to vote and she has missed elections. I am sure there are many others that have similar situations.
Why isn’t the Secretary of State educating the public about the voting law changes? His Facebook posts merely brag about events he attends instead of making sure that all voters know the rules.
The fact is, in a few short years Biden and Trump will be gone. Hopefully, by then, Wyomingites will go back to being the hard working, caring people who want what is best for each other.
Enough said!
Mr. Bannon. What you say may be true. But reality is Trump was elected in 2016 and will be hopefully reelected in 2024. But look at the sad sack of politicians on both sides of the aisle. They have long abandoned the average USA Joe Citizen and constitution. Trump came forward as concerned citizen. Don’t forget Trump was hard Democrat for years. Supported Bill Clinton. Who wasn’t bad president over all. Biden has been in political office since 1974. Only enriched him and family. McConnell has done the same. Listen to Trumps over all message for USA. All due respect if anyone who voted for Biden and corruption in 2020 votes for him in 24. They need to be committed to mental ward. For life. USA can’t continue this national debt. Obama/Biden are responsible for $18 BILLION in national debt. Over 50% of $34 trillion in national debt. Illegal migration is driving inflation. Ukraine war is unwinable!! Trump had peace in Middle East. Biden blew it up. Palestine made its own misery. I should not have to bear that burden. Biden made both Ukraine/Gaza war. World is on edge because of Bad Biden puppet ship.
The orange menace thinks only about himself and how he can profit.
This is a very aggressive way of purging the voter rolls, but it is not harmful so long as residents can re-register at the polls without issue.
Unfortunately, Chuck Gray tried to CREATE issues with the impediments he tried to impose (and which the Governor, thankfully, vetoed). Had Chuck’s rules taken effect, thousands of legitimate Wyoming citizens would have presented valid government ID but been blindsided by requests for additional UNofficial, NONgovernment documents that they didn’t think to bring or did not even have (e.g. women with utility bills in a husband’s name).
While Chuck can’t be ousted from his position as Secretary of State unless he does something outright criminal (and maybe not even then), Iet’s defeat him as a candidate for Governor in this summer’s primary.
I appreciate Secretary of State Chuck Gray. He is attempting to keep our elections accurate and legal. Everyone should follow the law.
With the trash that run for office here, and a guarantee that conservative MAGAts running will win by a 2 to 1 majority, voting is a waste of time in Wyoming.
Thank you sir, it’s good to know that someone out there shares my view of the topic.
Secretary of State Gray is spot on…“Voter roll hygiene and voter registry maintenance is extremely important to maintaining integrity and confidence in our electoral process,”.
It is also required by Federal law and that law was used to purge California Voter Roles after Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit. The settlement illustrates all of the aspects of the law and the required removal of 1.5 million from the voter rolls in California, link below
https://www.judicialwatch.org/documents/jw-v-logan-california-nvra-settlement-08948/
It is good that the voter roles get purged in Wyoming. Besides, it is also the law, State and federal. I applaud the vigilance of Secretary Gray and county clerks to make Wyoming a example to the rest of the country in election integrity.
There is certainly more work to be done.
The MAGA rabble and their Wyoming spokesperson Chuckie Gray sure make a lot of noise about rigged elections and voter fraud, don’t they ? Demanding solutions to nonexistent problems.
Truth be told, it’s THEM who are doing the vote riggin’ and the fraudulation.
Wyoming-at-large has no more important duty this election cycle than to vote down and throw out the right wing Republican extremists, starting with your local precinct downballot. So get registered, and vote. The Freedom Caucus…isn’t about freedom at all.
Dewey Vanderhoff- the article clearly states this is a federal and state requirement. It has NOTHING to do with MAGA ,or conservatives.
Disagree. It has everything to do with them. All you have to do is backtrack and see where the ideology was spawned . They don’t call it the Big Lie for naught
Exactly paralleling how the Wyoming Freedom Caucus – incapable of doing their own original political thinking – is handfed the ideology and boilerplate legislation from the national Freedom Caucus swamp . Have you noticed how the same right wing extremist legislation arises in state legislatures all around the country, of which voter roll manipulation and electioneering are but two example of that ?
It’s important to vote, so that we can purge the state of the GQP.
Every county in USA needs to purge and clean voter roles. Far too many counties have more registered voters than population. Several counties in USA had 130% or more votes cast in 2020 then population. Time to clean house. Time for election security.
Wake up Larry, you’re in a dream.
Name those counties please. I would like to follow up on this interesting report.
I agree that voter registration lists need to be kept up to date, or, with people who move or die, you can have more people on the roles than are qualified to vote. However, this does not equate actually having more people voting than there is “population” in a county (since population would include people under the age of 18, those not qualified to vote, and people who never registered to vote). I would be interested to know what counties had 130% more votes than their population? Now If it’s a state where you can register at the poles, it is obviously possible to have more people vote than there were people registered BEFORE election day. Just curious where your information came from.
Can you cite specific examples of counties that have more voters and your source of information? If this is true, it is concerning. If it is not true, I would hate to see you spread false information. As you point out integrity is important.
Cleaning voter rolls of deceased people is our duty, cleaning live people off rolls cuz they didnt vote in previous election is a political maneuver designed to decrease voter participation !
Larry I’m sure you are probably aware of the calendar for collecting, tabulating and releasing of census data every 10 years and the fact that the population figures you were looking at were probably 2010 numbers and not 2020 numbers. Which could well mean that they bear no relevance to the 2020 population whatsoever. In addition your “several counties in the U.S.”” is ridiculous. Do you have any idea at all how many counties there are in the U.S.? Several counties would amount to .09% (9/100s of 1 percent) which even if it was true (which I doubt) would not be statistically significant in any national election. On top of that those counties aren’t in Wyoming. Let’s take care of Wyoming problems not mythical problems from never never land.