On August 17, Wyoming held its primaries. No one filed to run for Teton County Attorney in the Democratic primary. However, 109 Democrats cast a write-in vote for Greg Blenkinsop for that office, so he is the party’s nominee. See this story.
Wyoming is not one of the 35 states that require a write-in candidate to file a declaration of write-in candidacy in advance of any primary or general election, as a condition of counting write-ins for that candidate. Wyoming law requires a write-in candidate to receive at least 25 write-ins in a primary in order to be nominated. If the election returns show that anyone received that many write-in votes in a primary, and outpolled any other candidate for the nomination, then elections officials contact the individual and ask whether he or she wants the nomination. In this case Blenkinsop accepted the nomination, even though he had not initiated the write-in campaign. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for the link.
Good! 25 votes or more and you’re nominated! Ballot equality for all is possible. Does this work for any party in WY or do only the parties with ballot access have this choice?
Only parties entitled to have a primary can nominate that way. Smaller ballot-qualified parties nominate by convention, and of course a convention system is very free and easy.
Wyoming gives parties a primary if they polled at least 10% in the last election.