Nearly five times as many people in Park County have changed their voter registration through the first seven months of the year as compared to the last midterm elections in 2018.
Also, according to Park County Elections Office staff, more than half (56.4%) of the new Republicans registered in the county, or 594 voters, could be considered “crossover” as they were registered to vote in the county previously as something other than Republican.
From the start of the year through Friday, a total of 613 Park County voters have changed their political affiliation.
Crossover voting has been a big topic of discussion in recent years. In 2018 the late gubernatorial candidate Foster Friess raised the possibility that he had lost to the more moderate Mark Gordon due to Democrats or independents registering to vote in the Republican primary.
This year the campaign for U.S. House has taken the conversation around crossover voting to new levels with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) under attack from much of the Republican Party for her stance against former President Donald Trump, even putting out an ad with information on how voters can change their registration to vote for her.
C.J. Baker with the elections office said while up significantly, the number of crossover voters still represents a small part of the overall Park County electorate.
As of Friday, there were 17,537 voters in the county, including 14,509 Republicans (82.7% of the total). Those voters who have switched affiliation in the county to Republican account for about 4.1% of the party’s voters and 3.4% of the overall electorate. There are still 1,169 Democrats in Park County (nearly 6.7% of all registered voters) and 1,682 unaffiliated voters (9.6%).
At the start of the year, there were 13,457 Republicans, 1,503 Democrats and 1,862 unaffiliated voters.
Historically, midterm primaries have been the elections where each vote counts the most because the lowest percentage of votes are cast.
As deputy county clerk Hans Odde said at a public display of voting equipment in July, the expectations are that, as in the past, turnout will be lower for the midterm primary than for a presidential election year. And in past years a far lower percentage of registered voters participate in the primaries as compared to general elections in November. In 2018, just 36% of voters participated in the primary and 51% in the general. In 2020, 38% of registered voters took part in the primary and 72% in the general.
Park County residents can still register to vote or update their registration (including their political affiliation) at the time they vote, whether that’s at their polling place on Tuesday during Election Day (7 a.m.-7 p.m.) or when voting early in the elections office at the courthouse.
(2) comments
Well yeah, if you want to have a say in Park County elections, you have to vote in the Republican primary. Every voter has a right to have their voice heard, and there is nothing in the world wrong with taking steps to make your vote as effective as possible.
Anything to stop trump's lap dog from winning.
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