Secretary of State Chuck Gray filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against Wyoming’s closed primary system, which was a partially open primary up until 2023.
A closed primary requires voters to be registered with a party before they can vote in that party’s primary election. This year, the deadline for party registration was May 13, two weeks before the deadline for candidates to file for office.
Jimmy Skovgard, who’s running as a Republican for U.S. Senate, brought the suit along with six voters. They say they want to vote for Skovgard in the Republican primary, but don’t want to have to abandon or disguise their political identities while doing so.
In an affidavit viewed by Wyoming Public Radio, Skovgard claims, “Wyoming’s party affiliation deadline presently interferes with my ability to associate with willing supporters who want to vote for me in the Republican primary.”
“Because of that deadline,” Skovgard continues, “I cannot fully engage, organize and receive electoral support in the decisive stage of the election from willing supporters who refuse to change their political identity or who wish to leave a party affiliation that no longer reflects their beliefs.”
Gray wants the court to toss the case on grounds of Skovgard and voters “[having] failed to allege facts.”
“The alleged injury that the voter plaintiffs suffer is forced association with a political party they disagree with,” said Gray in his motion to dismiss. “Wyoming statutory deadlines simply manage the timing of this structural feature. By its very nature, however, ‘closed’ primary unavoidably requires maintaining party registration. Consequently, they suffer no personalized, ongoing injury to candidate choice that distinguishes them from the general public.”
This isn’t the first time the secretary of state has found himself named in a lawsuit surrounding election law and voter rights.
Gray previously fought a similar case brought in 2024, in which voters and former political candidates claimed that Wyomingites’ right to political equality was being violated through Wyoming’s primary rules.
Initially, that lawsuit sought to challenge Wyoming’s “sore loser” law. The law prevents candidates who lost their primary election from running as an independent. The case later expanded to challenge Wyoming's closed primary system.
A district court upheld the primary laws, siding with Gray.
In a statement attached to his motion to dismiss the current suit, Gray attributed Skovgard’s lawsuit to a “far left radical” attempt at disrupting Wyoming’s voter laws and referred to similar lawsuits as “baseless.”
“I take these attacks on our primary system very seriously, and we have defended lawsuit after lawsuit to ensure the integrity of our primaries,” said Gray.
Gray recently appeared before the Joint Corporation, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee, where lawmakers took up a handful of election bills for review brought by the secretary of state’s office. This included a request to draft a bill that would move the deadline for registered voters to change party affiliation to Jan. 1.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
