Wyoming voters share what brought them to the polls

From pregnancy to services for senior citizens, a diverse array of issues drove Wyomingites to the polls Tuesday.

Voters leaving the cavernous Industrial Building at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds — the polling place for 13 different Natrona County precincts on Election Day — listed several issues that brought them to the polls.

For Casperites Luke and Jennifer Anderson, skyrocketing property taxes and insurance costs were top of mind. The couple also wanted to see new faces in office, favoring Reid Rasner for the U.S. Senate over incumbent John Barrasso in the Republican primary. (Barrasso would triumph over Rasner later than evening.)

“Barrasso has been in there so long, I think we need a new outlook,” said Jennifer Anderson, 38.

“I just figure sometimes you need a new guy in there and see what he can do,” said Luke Anderson, 41.

Kathy Haden, 78, said she’s interested in the county commission and city council races. But her biggest concern in the primary election is a local ballot measure to establish a Natrona County Senior Citizen Service District. Senior service organizations, including Meals on Wheels, are struggling with limited resources and can barely keep up with demand, she said.

“I volunteer at both the Senior Center and Meals on Wheels, so I see first-hand the value of it,” Haden told WyoFile. “I can’t imagine what would happen to the community if they had to close. It would be devastating.”

Haden said she’s also disappointed in the “lack of options” among candidates and particularly races where there are no challengers.

Delaney Harm, 24, recently moved to Wyoming from Nebraska, and said she’s not intimately familiar with many local and statewide issues. She feels it’s her civic duty to vote, however, and said she’s most interested in public education and safety at schools. Meantime, she’s looking forward to the general election. “The presidential [race] is a big one,” Harm said.

Powder River Basin coal miner Steve Reynolds caught a ride with some fellow crew members for the 1.5-plus hour commute from the North Antelope Rochelle Mine to the Casper area and got dropped off at the Evansville Community Center just past 5:30 p.m. to cast his ballot in Wyoming’s primary election.

“Usually, I get off work at 6:30, but they let us off at 3:30 today so we could get home earlier to vote,” Reynolds said. The only primary election contest that really interested the 43-year-old devout Catholic and father of nine was the Republican race for the U.S. Senate.

“Mostly, I’m just not a big fan of Barrasso,” Reynolds said. “Otherwise, I usually don’t vote for people I don’t know or issues I don’t know about.” In the general election, Reynolds said he’ll be voting for pro-life candidates and those he believes might help stem inflation and the rising cost of living.

Sen. John Barrasso’s race also spurred many to the polls in Cheyenne, voters told WyoFile. The high profile House District 43 contest between Rep. Dan Zwonitzer and Ann Lucas brought out voters as well. (Zwonitzer would lose to Lucas later in the evening.)

Every race was important according to Fred and Lorie Harrison. She was born on the 4th of July and loves to practice her civic duty, and he said they want to preserve Wyoming’s conservative culture and their view that “a man is a man,” as God intended, he said.

“We always vote,” he said.

Democrats also found a reason to hit the Cheyenne polling stations Tuesday, even if, because it was a primary, all they could vote on was city council. For Bo Paulsrud, even that race makes a difference. And Carol Matteson Pascal said it’s the right thing to do.

“Even though there’s no hope, I want the Democrats to win,” Pascal said.

And yet another voter said she was mainly avoiding extremism.

“I was trying to find the moderates,” Renée Bovée said.

Many continued to go to the polls for the sole purpose of practicing their rights. Melanie Sinnott’s husband fought for Americans’ rights in the Navy, and she felt voting was a privilege she needed to continue practicing. Her daughter Amanda, who was voting for the first time, accompanied her to the polling station.

“It’s the local elections that affect us much more frequently,” Amanda said.

The fight over billionaire Joe Ricketts’ averted luxury resort in the Bondurant area was top of mind for Carol Radakovich on Tuesday as she made her way to the Pinedale polling station to vote in the primary election.

“I don’t believe a word he or his spokesperson says, that he’s not going to continue on raping our mountains,” she said. “And I’m over it.”

After voting, Radakovich explained that she wanted to vote in county commission candidates who don’t talk “out the side of their mouth” and would keep Ricketts’ resort dead.

On the University of Wyoming campus, talk of the primary election elicited mixed reactions — from invested to disinterested.

UW students Bailey Collins and Gracie McCain aren’t interested in Wyoming politics. Neither Collins nor Mccain voted in the Wyoming primaries. “I haven’t been urged to vote for these elections,” Collins said. Both Collins and McCain plan to vote in the November presidential election.

Graduate student Nyoka Erikson is somewhat interested in Wyoming politics, but feels that the Laramie City Council election is more important than the state races. Erikson is motivated to vote by issues related to housing and parking in Laramie. On the state level, Erikson is motivated based on the candidate’s stance on abortion rights.

Then there’s UW student Jasmin Mahoney, who pays attention to politics, at least more than the average student, she estimates. “You got to get out of that mindset of ‘Oh, my vote doesn’t matter,’ because if you and everyone else thinks that, all those people’s votes do make up a significant portion of what does matter,” Mahoney said. “So I think it’s important to go out and vote. Set a good example for your friends and your family.”

Mahoney is paying attention to DEI-related issues, education funding, reproductive health and reproductive rights, even though there isn’t much to differentiate candidates from one another on those issues, she notes. “I want to vote in a candidate that I think is going to represent my views as closely as possible on those,” Mahoney said.

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