Election runs smoothly, but voter turnout dips

Posted 8/18/16

According to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, Park County has nearly 24,000 adults; that means only a little more than 28 percent of them voted. Still, that percentage was a couple points better than the state as a …

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Election runs smoothly, but voter turnout dips

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Park County voters didn’t appear particularly interested in this year’s primary election.

A total of 6,750 county residents cast ballots in Tuesday’s election — the fewest since 2008.

According to the most recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, Park County has nearly 24,000 adults; that means only a little more than 28 percent of them voted. Still, that percentage was a couple points better than the state as a whole.

Park County Clerk Colleen Renner said she’d expected a slightly higher turnout, but from what she’s heard from other counties, “We were one of the higher ones, so I guess that’s not so bad.”

Renner, whose office oversees local elections, said there were no significant glitches.

“I guess being my first election (in office), it went really well,” she said, praising the work of her staff and others who helped put on the election.

Participation in primaries tends to dip in presidential election years, and this year was no exception: 979 fewer people voted in Park County than did in 2014. That was a roughly 13 percent decline.

Compared to 2012 — the last presidential election year — Park County’s turnout was fairly similar, but still down by almost 3 percent.

Across the state, 118,065 Wyoming residents cast ballots in this year’s primary. With an estimated 447,212 adults being of voting age, that means only a bit more than 26 percent of them participated in the election.

The number of Wyomingites who voted was down from 2014, but still represented a nearly 9 percent improvement from 2012.

Most of the contested races were on the Republican Party ballot and that was reflected in the turnout.

Around 61 percent of Park County’s registered Republicans voted, compared to 38.5 percent of Democrats and 9.8 percent of unaffiliated voters.

Overall, around 54 percent of Park County’s registered voters cast ballots.

“Maybe this was a slow run for the big run in November,” Renner said of the coming general election, adding, “Hopefully it will go just as smoothly as this one did.”

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