Tom Lacock

With the August 18 primary election in Wyoming just around the corner, AARP Wyoming has a list of tips to get you ready to vote this summer. Specifically, we think it is important to understand voter registration and where candidates stand on issues important to older adults.

Registration

AARP Wyoming encourages voters in Wyoming to ensure their voter registration is current ahead of the 2026 Primary Election, as Secretary of State data suggests there are nearly 26,000 fewer registered voters in May 2026 than in January 2025.

Believe it or not, this is somewhat normal. Wyoming law requires the state’s county clerks to purge their voter rolls every two years, meaning clerks are required to remove the names of voters who did not vote in the most recent general election, even if they voted in the last primary election. 

This means you will need to re-register with your county clerk before you are allowed to vote in 2026. Of course, you can do that on election day, but no one wants to be that guy holding up the line.

If you don’t remember whether you voted during the general election in 2024 (we’ve all slept since then), go ahead and call or email the Park County Clerk’s Office.

If you want to vote absentee, you will also need to be registered to vote before you can cast that ballot. To re-register, call the county clerk. You will be required to fill out a form and present a valid ID. The ID can include everything from a passport to a driver’s license and even US military ID card. 

Keep in mind that if you have an out-of-state license, you will need to prove residency for more than 30 days. While an out-of-state driver’s license may be used to prove identification, other documentation is required to prove residence and possible citizenship.

Video Voter Guides

Candidates for public office are being showered with questionnaires right now from organizations in and out of state. These are membership groups, trade associations and more that want to know what candidates stand for and whether candidates are good fits for endorsements or possibly campaign contributions.

AARP has a proud 40-year history of non-partisan voter engagement and does not endorse or oppose candidates, nor does AARP make contributions to political campaigns or candidates at any level. Instead, our candidate questionnaire is the Video Voter Guide. If we can get two candidates in any single legislative, gubernatorial, or US House race to commit, we record the candidate answering three questions. Those questions — summarized — are:

What can we do to help stop older adults from being scammed and protect them from other types of fraud?

How do we help older adults age in their homes as long as they can?

Property Tax Relief: Are we doing it right or wrong? How should we offer relief without losing senior services, many of which do rely on property taxes?

We ask those questions because our member surveys tell us that's what our members want to know about from candidates. We will put those recorded answers on our Facebook page (facebook.com/aarpwy), and send the candidate’s video answers out to each email address we have in a candidate’s district. These will start being uploaded and distributed in mid-June. 

If you don’t see your local candidate on our Video Voter Guides by July, tell them to call me. We’d love to get their take on issues of importance to older adults.

Tom Lacock is the Associate State Director at AARP Wyoming. He can be contacted at tlacock@aarp.org.