In some far reaches of rural America, Democrats are flirting with extinction. In Niobrara County, Wyoming, the least-populated county in the least-populated state, Becky Blackburn is one of just 32 left.
Her neighbors call her “the crazy Democrat,” although it’s more a term of endearment than derision.
Some less populated counties have fewer. There are 21 Democrats in Clark County, Idaho, and 20 in Blaine County, Nebraska. But Niobrara County’s Democrats, who account for just 2.6% of registered voters, are the most outnumbered by Republicans in the 30 states that track local party affiliation, according to Associated Press election data.
In Wyoming, the state that has voted for Donald Trump by a wider margin than any other, overwhelming Republican dominance may be even more cemented-in now that the state has passed a law that makes changing party affiliation much more difficult.
And don’t you just love how a Wyoming American citizen’s vote is worth 4 California American citizens?
Sure is great that all that empty land can vote.
Yeah but it’s okay because apparently farmers are super-citizens, and that entitles them to having more votes!
In the Senate it’s much more than that.
True! I don’t even mind that so much as that was part of the Great Compromise. I just mind that it applies to electing the President, which would be like giving citizens of less-populated counties in a state more voting weight in electing their Governor. Just absurd.
It’d be nice to see them merged with Colorado.
in the 30 states that track local party affiliation
Having to register your party with the state is weird
Pretty common requirement for voting in primaries.
Open primaries work fine.
You can also just tick the unaffiliated box
In my state there is actually no upside to registering your party with the state. It limits your options in the primary.
Unaffiliated voters can vote in either primary.
That’s so… limiting…
I’m in a swing state and can choose to vote for any single party in the primary. Just one. You can declare a party by filling a bubble on your ballot, so if you accidentally vote somewhere you don’t mean to it doesn’t count (the list is big), and if you don’t do that and vote in more than one none count, but if one party is locked in due to incumbent or something, I can vote for the least bad option in the opposing side. I’m not locked in to anything, and I think I’m still registered as a dem from so so many years ago.
Everyone should have that and it’s so weird that we let states decide that sort of thing.
TIL to keep driving through Wyoming
So how many are officially affiliated as Republicans and vote Democrat?
Deeper in the article it talks about this, it’s a lot. It’s really the most strategic way to vote in a state absolutely dominated by one party.
It can’t be that many if the legislature is 90% GOP.
Gerrymandering isn’t just at the federal level… although it must be more difficult when everyone registers R.
Again, if that was what was happening, the election results would be different. Wyoming voted out Liz Cheney in favor of Batshit McCrazyeyes, so I don’t buy the “Dems register as Republicans but secretly vote blue” story.
I wonder if the brain drain is measurable. Meaning, how many children with any potential grow up and then stay in the state?
It could. If every district voted 49% Democratic, then entire legislature would be Republicans. That’s pretty close to the situation in Texas, where nearly half the voters are Democrats but Republicans have an iron grip on the state government.
Sounds like a horrible insufferable place.
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