The State Canvassing Board voted unanimously to approve the general election results. The secretary of state chairs the board. Other members of the board are the governor, treasurer and auditor. The board approved the State Abstract Certification, which summarizes and accounts for the 2026 Wyoming general election results.
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray called the election a success. Gray will be Wyoming’s lone representative in Washington, D.C., starting in January.
A new major party
The election division of the secretary of state office said there were 130 candidates in the general election. Eighty-three Republicans, 35 were Democrats, five Libertarians, and one Independent. Six Constitution Party candidates ran as well, including Rebecca Bextel for the position of governor.
Bextel received 16.7% of the ballots cast for governor. According to Wyoming law, candidates that receive not less than 10% of the vote in a governor, U.S. Senate, or secretary of state race give their party major party status. Bextel met that threshold.
The Constitution Party will participate in the 2028 primary election to nominate a candidate for the general. As such, county clerks will have to prepare a ballot for the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Constitution Party.
There were no successful statewide write-in candidates. Additionally, the election division said no statewide or legislative candidates called for a recount, nor had any county conducted a mandatory recount at the time of the state board meeting.
Voter Turnout
During the general election, 191,713 Wyomingites voted. The election division estimates there are 461,419 Wyomingites of voting age this year, which means 41.5% of the voting-age population turned out to vote.
At the start of the meeting, Gray praised the voting public for a “high voter turnout compared to previous midterm elections.” Wyoming did see a higher number of ballots cast on Election Day when compared to the 2014 and 2010 midterms.
However, the election division noted this year represented the second lowest voting age population turnout in Wyoming’s general election since 1978. That’s when the office began tracking this data point. The lowest voting-age population turnout was the 2014 midterm election, which saw 38.5% turnout, while the 2010 midterms saw 48.3%.
Treasurer Curt Meier said that it's not surprising given there's no President on a midterm ticket. However, he hopes to see higher midterm participation in the future.
“I’d just like to say, we need to continue to get voter turnout in this off year. I think that’s something we need to strive for,” said Meier. “Now’s the time for unity and realize there's a lot that we can do for our neighbors, for our state and for our nation. I just hope that we all basically get in the boat, get the oars in the water and go in the same direction, that’s forward.”
Technical issues
There were two minor problems that occurred on Election Day, however the division said they were all resolved at the county level. In Park County, phone lines went down, but the issue was resolved by alerting the public to alternative forms of contacting the county offices.
Arapahoe Charter High School in Fremont County experienced a brief network outage before 7 a.m. when it opened as a polling location. The election division said the issue was resolved by 8:15 a.m., and they used backup poll books during the downtime.
What’s next?
Wyoming county clerks are still in the process of conducting a 5% hand-count audit of ballots cast in the general election. The Legislature passed a bill this year that required county clerks to conduct the audit for the primary and general election. This after members of the public and lawmakers expressed concern over machine tabulators used in elections.
The deadline for the audit is nine days after the county canvass. For most counties, this falls on Nov. 14 or Nov. 15.
After the 2026 state primaries, Wyoming counties, including Albany County, successfully conducted an audit that reflected the machine tabulator numbers.
