A bill that would have restricted when voters can change their party affiliations died in its first reading in the Senate on Thursday.
HB 106 was killed on a vote of 14-11.
The bill would have eliminated current laws that allow people to change party affiliation at the polls on the day of a primary election. Legislators looked at a number of possible deadlines for the change, from May 1 to two weeks prior to Wyoming’s August primary. As it entered the Senate, the bill also would have required a voter to present a photo ID to change party affiliation. That language was removed before senators voted to kill the bill itself.
The secretary of state’s office has reported that more than 12,000 people changed party affiliation prior to Wyoming’s last primary election. The Wyoming Republican Party had made putting time limits on those changes a priority for this session.
