George Bernard Shaw observed, “the single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
For evidence, look no farther than the firestorm of response from both Republicans and Democrats after my last week’s column, “In Wyoming, the real election day is August.” Both sides decided that I was advocating that Democrats change their affiliation to Republican by the May 13 deadline.
I had specifically stated, “Putting partisan loyalty aside for a moment, the numbers say that unless you live in Teton or Albany County, or you hold strong Democratic convictions, registering Republican and voting in the Republican primary election gives you the greatest opportunity to influence who governs Wyoming.”
That sentence was about numbers and I was considering the 230,000 Wyoming citizens who aren’t registered to vote at all. Between that and the low turnout by registered voters, mostly Republicans, only 27% took part in the August 2024 Primary. That’s not a rounding error. That’s roughly two-thirds of Wyoming’s entire population sitting out.
After reading through the various lines of comments, I finally had an aha moment. The misunderstanding wasn’t partisan bias. I knew something they clearly don’t.
Here’s what most people don’t know: Wyoming’s voter registration requires a party selection. Leave it blank, and the system files you as Unaffiliated, whether you meant that or not.
To fully participate in the August Primary, voters registered as Unaffiliated need to change their Party to either Republican or Democratic. That’s not urging Democrats to register as Republicans. That’s urging Unaffiliated voters to make a choice so they can participate where the choices actually are. The numbers are what they are.
Here’s the thing: what I’ve found most revealing is how quickly some people jumped past the real issue. Instead of asking why so many citizens are sitting out the election that matters most, they rushed to defend party labels as though a voter’s first duty is to protect an organization.
That gets things backward.
If Democrats are upset, then get to work giving people a reason to register as Democrats, stay Democrats, and vote in August. Recruit candidates. Create competition. Make the case.
If Republicans are upset, then stop obsessing over who might cross over and start asking why so many registered Republicans don’t bother to show up in the first place. A party confident in its ideas should want more participation, not less.
Too much of this sounds less like civic engagement and more like gatekeeping. Party purity is not a substitute for persuasion. Outrage is not turnout work. And bad faith reactions don’t change the basic fact that voters have to decide how to use the system we have, not the one some wish we had.
The half of Wyomingites not registered are completely leaving the determination on who will govern at the state, county and local levels to someone else. In a state this small, that’s not an abstraction. A few hundred votes decides races in most Wyoming counties. Your absence has a name on it.
Those elected officials set your county road budget, determine school funding, shape water law, decide what support reaches aging parents and disabled neighbors, and approve the zoning that affects your property and your neighbor’s. Every single aspect of your life, and the lives of those you care about, is shaped by the people who win those races.
And those representatives won’t look out for your interests if you’re not in the room when the choices get made.
So I repeat, with the exceptions noted, the best opportunity to have a say in who governs Wyoming is as a Republican. Don’t do that if you’re a Democrat. Don’t do that if you hold Democratic Party ideology.
Look at who is sitting in the offices at your County Courthouse. Look at those seated in the chambers of the Legislature while it is in session. Look at the Top Five State Elected Officials working in the Capitol building.
What party affiliation do they hold? If you like them and they’re running for reelection, you can’t influence that without matching their affiliation and showing up to vote. That’s also true if you don’t like them.
If you don’t give a hot damn about political parties or their ideology or platforms and you care about Wyoming and your community, register, affiliate with the major party that makes sense for you and vote as you see fit.
Wyoming’s future shouldn’t be decided by whoever bothers to show up while half the state stays home. If you are registered Unaffiliated, you have until May 13 to change. For everyone, make sure you are registered. Then vote in August. And November.
Gail Symons can be reached at: GailSymons@mac.com
