A measure that would have ended single-party primary elections in Wyoming was rejected by House members on Friday.
House Bill 152, which would have turned primary elections into “qualifying events” for general elections, was defeated on a vote of 14-46.
“This makes it so (a primary election) becomes a qualifying event,” said Rep. Mike Yin, D-Jackson, the bill’s main sponsor. “Everyone gets to choose at the qualifying event and then the top two would move into the top spaces in the general election.”
Yin said he proposed the measure because too often, only one person is on the general election ballot for office and that person has been chosen through one party’s primary election.
“What I want to see is for everyone to be able to make the choice of who goes into that seat,” he said. “I don’t want that choice to be made by some sub-group of the population. This way it becomes the best person wins in the general election, where you have every voter having a say in who gets seated.”
The measure was rejected without debate.
