CASPER — A record number of voters wrote in candidates for the secretary of state general election this year, records from the Secretary of State’s Office show. 

Trump-backed Republican nominee for secretary of state Chuck Gray, who is the outgoing representative for House District 57, still easily sailed to victory in the uncontested race on Tuesday. 

He beat out his closest Republican opponent, Cheyenne Republican Sen. Tara Nethercott, by roughly eight points in the Republican primary. 

Gray, who has called the 2020 presidential election “fraudulent,” focused his primary campaign on getting rid of ballot boxes and rooting out voter fraud, even though cases of voter fraud in Wyoming are extremely rare. 

After his win in the primary election, a group of traditional and moderate-leaning Republicans, as well as some Democrats, searched for an independent candidate to challenge him in the November election. That effort ultimately failed. 

Roughly 7% of voters wrote in a candidate for secretary of state in the general election. That’s the highest number of write-ins for the race since the Secretary of State’s Office started recording write-in votes in 2008. 

In 2018 and 2010, the percentage of write-in votes was close to zero. In 2014, write-ins made up roughly 1% of votes for the secretary of state. 

The percentage of undervotes in the secretary of state’s race — at about 19% of the total vote — was also the highest it’s been since 2010.  (Undervotes occur when the voter fails to indicate a choice for the office.)

In 2018 and 2010, undervotes made up roughly 3% of votes cast in the race. They made up 9% of votes in 2014. 

But this is also the first year since the Secretary of State’s Office started recording write-ins and undervotes that the secretary of state race was uncontested; there were three candidates for the general election in 2018, 2014 and 2010. 

It makes sense that people might be more motivated to write-in a name or just not vote at all in a race that only has one candidate to choose from. 

At the same time, the percentage of write-in votes for the other uncontested statewide races this year — state auditor and state treasurer — weren’t as high as the percentage for the secretary of state race. 

About 1% of votes were write-ins for state auditor, and roughly 2% for state treasurer. (The 2% write-in vote for state treasurer is also the highest it’s been since 2010, although it’s not that big of a jump from 2014 and 2010, when write-ins made up roughly 1% of votes for that race.) 

Incumbents Kristi Racines and Curt Meier will stay in the state auditor and state treasurer roles, respectively. 

Racines was unopposed in the primary race. Meier beat Republican candidate Bill Gallop by nearly 40 points in the primary election.

The general election for Wyoming’s U.S. representative also garnered a record number of write-ins, although at 2% of the total votes cast, it’s less dramatic than the secretary of state race. 

The percentage of undervotes in that race stayed pretty much on par with previous years. 

There were a number of legislative races that also drew a lot of write-in votes. 

A whopping 29% of the votes went to write-in candidates in House District 19, where Republican Jon Conrad and Democrat Sarah Butters faced off in the general election (Conrad won). 

The Uinta County GOP took the unprecedented move to endorse a write-in candidate for that district — Republican Joe Webb — rather than back Conrad after his primary win. 

Conrad has been in a legal battle with the Uinta County GOP over the county party’s process of selecting its leadership, which he claims is illegal. 

The Wyoming Secretary of State’s reported results for the general election don’t show who got the write-in votes, so it’s not clear at this point how many of those votes went to Webb. 

In Senate District 1, 22% of the votes were write-ins. 

Devils Tower Republican Sen. Driskill ran unopposed in the general election there after beating out Rep. Bill Fortner, R-Gillette, and Republican candidate Roger Connett in the primary race. 

But after Driskill won the primary, supporters of Connett turned around and started a write-in campaign to try to get him back in the race. 

In House District 2, where Republican Allen Slagle ran unopposed for the general election, roughly 13% of the vote went to write-in candidates. 

About 15% of the vote went to write-ins in Cody Republican Rep. Sandy Newsome’s House District 24; 10% went to write-ins in Powell Republican Rep. David Northrup’s House District 25.