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Committee hits pause on creating open primary, removing party affiliation in Wyoming

CASPER, Wyo. — The Wyoming Legislature’s Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Interim Committee voted during a meeting on Thursday to indefinitely table proposed legislation that would create open primaries in Wyoming. 

Rep. Hans Hunt (Niobrara, Weston, Goshen County) said during the meeting that he had initially asked that the committee consider such legislation as one of several options for reforming Wyoming’s primary elections after efforts arose in spring 2021 to create a runoff system in Wyoming’s primary elections. The Wyoming Senate killed a proposal to create a runoff system on a 14-15 vote during the 2021 General Session.

Hunt noted that the Joint Corporations, Elections & Political Subdivisions Interim Committee has a number of proposed bills it is considering in regard to reforming primary elections in that state. That includes another runoff elections draft bill, a ranked choice voting proposal and more that were set to be discussed Thursday.

Hunt said he’d like to see the committee keep all options on the table for consideration. He said that his interest in bringing the open primary proposal forward was to generate discussion around the concept. 

The proposed open primary bill would have created an open primary in which twice the number of candidates would advance to the general election as positions the office has up for election, rather than advancing only the top two candidates. 

The proposal would also allow candidates to refrain from identifying their political party. It would also amend the definitions of “major,” “minor” and “provisional” parties and “allow votes for the office of President of the United States to count for the percentage requirements for a party to be considered “major” or “minor.” 

The draft bill would also remove the option for candidates to petition for a nomination and would remove the primary election of local precinct committee members. Instead, precinct positions would be elected based on party by-laws. 

Wyoming Secretary of State Office’s Policy and Planning Analyst Jennifer Committee told the committee that the proposed legislation would require changes to the statewide voter registration system, online candidate filing system and campaign finance system.

She said it would cost over $800,000 to implement the changes. 

“We don’t encourage any kind of modifications to the system in an election year,” Martinez added.

The Secretary of State’s Office would not be equipped to implement the proposed changes until the 2023 maintenance cycle in preparation for the 2024 election cycle, according to Martinez. 

Rep. Jim Roscoe (Lincoln, Sublette, Teton) asked whether the cost to implement the open primaries could be reduced if the legislature looked to implement the changes in time for the 2024 election cycle rather than 2022. 

Martinez said there would still be costs to implement the changes no matter when such legislation would mandate the proposed changes. 

Wyoming Republican Party Vice Chair David Holland told the committee he opposed the open primary concept and said he found the legislation too complicated. 

He expressed concerns that an open primary could create a situation in which one party controls the levers of power in state government and said he didn’t think the proposal would solve any problems in Wyoming. 

Ronald LeBlanc, a former member of the state board of pharmacy, said that he has concerns about the current system allowing a candidate to advance to the general election without winning a majority of votes during the primary. 

He said he prefers the concept of open primaries to ranked choice voting but also would like to see more consideration given to primary runoffs. 

Gail Symons with Civics 307 said that she thinks a republic functions well if there is strong participation by an informed public and a system that encourages healthy competition between political candidates. 

She said that in the 2020 general election in Wyoming, 63% of races for seats in the Wyoming Legislature had only one candidate in the general election, meaning that the election outcome was essentially decided during the primary. 

However, she said that only 2-3 of registered voters participated in primary elections compared with 92% during the general election. 

She suggested that reform to the primary process is needed to ensure more healthy competition in Wyoming elections. 

Symons also said that concerns about people switching party affiliation in order to influence the outcome of the other party’s primary is overstated and represents only a small fraction of overall voters. 

She said that the more pressing issue is that voters choose to affiliate with the Republican Party even if that is not the party which most closely represents their own values because they understand that GOP primary elections tend to determine general election outcomes in Wyoming. She said such voters don’t tend to cross over back and forth between parties as often as people may think. 

Symons said that open primaries would make it possible for voters to register with the political affiliation that most closely resembles their values and remove the incentive for people to register with a party they don’t agree with in order to strategically impact election outcomes. 

Symons recommended that if the committee move forward with the proposed legislation, it reinstate primary elections for precinct committee positions rather than doing away with that process. 

P.J. Marshall, a precinct committee member in Sheridan County, said that he opposes the open primary concept. 

“I hope and pray that we keep a strong and closed primary system,” he said. 

Unita County resident Carl Walbridge said that he is opposed to open primaries because he doesn’t think candidates should have the ability to refrain from listing their political affiliation on the ballot. He said that voters ability to see that a candidate is a Democrat or a Republican allows them to have a sense of what the candidate stands for and this is something voters have a right to know. 

Sheridan resident Jackie McMann, on the other hand, questioned whether it is a good thing that people can look at a candidates party affiliation on the ballot, suggesting that this allows voters to make decisions without actually knowing anything about what the candidate specifically stands for. 

An open primary in which candidates would not be required to have their political affiliation listed on the ballot would make it so that “people have to identify you by your ideas and not just by your label,” McMann said. 

Committee Vice Chair Rep. Dan Zwonitzer (Laramie County) said he appreciated the public comment, though he said he had some disagreements with some who drew on the country’s “founding fathers” to give weight to their opposition to open primaries. 

“The founding fathers didn’t like political parties,” Zwonitzer said, adding that some of the country’s founding fathers warned that political parties would be the downfall of the republic. 

He said that open primaries are something he thinks are worthy of consideration and that there may be value in removing the party label associated with a candidate’s name on the ballot. 

“I think the bill has merit,” Zwonitzer said, suggesting the committee keep the proposal alive and advancing it for debate in the full legislature. 

Sen. Cale Case (Fremont County) said that while he thinks debate on the proposal would be interesting, he doesn’t think there is a chance the concept could be implemented in a budget year. He said that he didn’t think the committee should spend its time working on the open primary concept this year. 

However, Case suggested that he does have concerns about the primary system in place in Wyoming. He said that he thinks there are people who want to win elections versus those that are actually interested in the work of governing Wyoming. 

“I’m looking at a Republican party that wants to win, not one that wants to govern,” Case said “And I really believe that.”

Sen. Charles Scott (Natrona County) said that he was opposed to the draft open primary bill because he thinks it could create a situation in which minor political parties are cut out of the general election entirely. That could happen since the top candidates in the primary that would advance to the general election might all be affiliated, unofficially or not, with the dominant political party in the state. 

Scott said, however, that open primaries in theory could also do the opposite. That could happen if there were a few strong minority party candidates and a plethora of majority party candidates that would dilute the vote among majority party voters. In that situation minority party candidates may have an advantage to advance to the general election over the wider number of majority party candidates. 

Roscoe, the only member of the Wyoming Legislature registered as an independent, said that he thinks the open primary concept could make it easier for independents to run for office in Wyoming. 

“Right now as an independent you are at a little bit of a disadvantage,” Roscoe said.

He also said he thinks the proposal would be good “for Wyoming people who think for themselves and value their liberty and freedom.”

Sen. Brian Boner (Converse, Platte) said he was against the draft bill and said that he was skeptical it would effectively do much to make Wyoming politics less partisan. He added that he thinks political parties “do matter.”

Case motioned to table the committee’s consideration of the draft bill indefinitely and the committee adopted his motion. The proposed legislation could theoretically be brought back up for consideration by motion from a committee member and approval of the committee at any time.


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