Last week, the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office answered one of the lingering questions about August’s election: Just how many voters switched their political affiliation to participate in the Republican primary?
According to the data, a total of 367 people in Park County switched over to the Republican party for the primary. That included 195 “unaffiliated” voters who had not yet joined a party, 155 Democrats, 11 Libertarians and six Constitutionalists who decided to join the GOP.
Assuming that every single one of those people actually voted in the Republican primary, those “switchers” made up not quite 4.8 percent of the 7,721 Republicans who participated in Park County’s election.
Meanwhile, 28 unaffiliated voters joined the Democratic party while 11 Park County Republicans switched over to the Democratic side. That covers switches between early July and late September. County data indicates that the number of people switching from unaffiliated to Republican rose significantly from past years, while the number of converted Democrats was very similar to 2014 and down from 2010.