A measure to restrict when voters can change their party affiliations was narrowly defeated in a Senate committee Tuesday.
Senate File 32 would have prevented voters from changing party affiliation after candidates begin filing for office — usually in early May.
Under current law, a voter can change his or her affiliation at the polls on the day of the primary election.
Some 12,500 Wyoming voters changed their party affiliations prior to last year’s primary election. The state’s Republican Party, expressing concern about how such switches might affect a party’s primary, made a bill to restrict such switching a priority.
The bill died on a vote of 3-2 in the Senate Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee.
