Eric Barlow drew attention in Natrona County as voters cast ballots on Election Day in the race for governor and on a statewide property tax proposition. Faye Nobles also voted at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds, then had to tape up the front bumper of her Subaru after backing out of her parking spot.
Natrona County Clerk Tracy Good said 2,331 mail-in ballots and 5,906 in-person ballots had been cast before Election Day, for a total of 8,237. That count topped the 2022 midterm election, when the county recorded 2,727 mail-in ballots and 1,566 in-person ballots before Election Day.
Faye Nobles at Central Wyoming Fairgrounds
Nobles, a Westside Casper resident, said she supports the GOP up and down the ballot. “I felt it was really important to take a stand for the party that I’m with,” she said at the polls in Casper.
She added, “I want to see the Republicans keep the Senate and the House. I don’t like the way it’s going right now, and I really hope people vote red and not blue. I feel like we live in a red state, so that makes me happy.” Her stop at the Central Wyoming Fairgrounds ended with a practical problem, not a political one: she nearly ripped the front bumper off her Subaru, then got help from a stranger who taped it up.
Tracy Good and Natrona County
Good said there were no hiccups or incidents to report at the polls as of Tuesday morning. She also said one man who came to the clerk's office Thursday morning to vote early yelled about a “stolen election” at her and her staff.
“Obviously, disrupting a polling place is against the law,” Good said. “You’re not going to attack us or disrupt everyone around you. But that was the only negative interaction we’ve had this whole time that I know about.” The contrast between steady voting and that complaint was one of the few signs of friction in the county's early-voting period.
Casper and Jackson voters
Jaylen Baxter said his main reason for voting was what he sees as an affordability crisis. “I think that Wyoming has relied on the boom-and-bust [economy] too much,” he said. “Wyoming needs to diversify its economy to be able to withstand the financial challenges we find today.” He said the race for governor was his biggest concern, and a registered Republican voter in Natrona County said, “I’m not MAGA. So anybody who is associated with that group, I have no interest in.”
In Jackson, Ryan Kertamis said the statewide races on his mind were governor and Wyoming's federal senator and representative. The property tax proposition on the ballot would exempt 50% of a primary residence's assessed value from property taxes, giving voters another reason to turn out beyond the governor's race. Eric Barlow's name drew traffic to the ballot, but the final outcome for the governor's race and the property tax measure was not in the record at the polls.
