By Jasmine Hall
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange
JACKSON — Local elections aren’t just about deciding who sits on the Town Council or heads to Cheyenne to write laws in the Wyoming Legislature.
Voters decide on the makeup of their county political parties.
Precinct committee people are selected every two years to make up the county central committee, according to Wyoming law, for the Democratic and Republican parties.
One precinct committeeman and committee woman is elected for every 250 votes or major fraction cast for the party candidate’s representative in Congress in the last general election, and the boundaries are drawn across the county.
Party leaders consider them to be vital to the future of politics.
“The grassroots representatives of the parties are your precinct captains,” Teton County GOP Chair Mary Martin said. “We’ve been successful because precinct captions are the foot soldiers, the eyes and ears of our party. We see them as the lifeblood of the political organization.”
She said ideally they are meeting people out in neighborhoods, learning what the issues are and being a voice in the central committee. She said political parties are hierarchical, and action starts in the precincts, goes to the county and then up to the state and national Republican Party.
One of the most significant responsibilities of precinct committee people comes when appointments for elected offices have to be made.
For example, the Teton County Democratic Party most recently recommended three candidates to replace former Teton County and Prosecuting Attorney Erin Weisman after she was appointed Circuit Court Judge for the Ninth District by Gov. Mark Gordon before the end of his term. She ran as a Democrat in 2022. Of the three nominees, Richard Stout was selected to replace her by the Teton County Board of County Commissioners.
“They are the people who vote,” Teton County Democratic Party Chair Maggie Hunt said. “Actually, I was really happy. We had 95% on that, by either in-person, proxy or Zoom.”
Hunt said that similar to the Republican Party, precinct committee people in the Democratic Party are also expected to be active members, attend the county convention and canvas for the party in election season.
“I think of precinct committee people as communicators,” Hunt said.
Across the state, there are more Republican voters registered than Democrats, and therefore more precinct people for the GOP. That trend is the same in Teton County. The Democratic Party elects 38 seats, and Republicans get 78 seats.
Martin said the number of precinct committee people in their party nearly doubled after so many voters declared Republican in 2022 to vote for former Rep. Liz Cheney in the primary. Cheney lost to Rep. Harriet Hageman in a landslide.
The growth in precinct committee people means more input for Republicans who decide to run and more foot soldiers. She hopes it will lead to people deciding to run for office after getting more experience.
“Hopefully somebody will step forward and say, ‘Oh, I’d like to run for commissioner,’ or, ‘I’d like to run for sheriff,’ ” she said.
Although there are more seats available for Republicans, this year there are still contested races in different precincts for the GOP. To see who is on the ballot, go to the Teton County Clerk’s Office election page and look at 2024 candidates or 2024 election sample ballots.
