Get registered, pay attention and then vote

Concerned citizens group gets a pep talk from legislative observer

A weekend meeting of a group calling itself the Concerned Citizens of Big Horn County — made up of both Republicans and Democrats — focused less on hot-button national issues and more on what can be done to make a difference closer to home.

Gail Symons, the meeting’s guest speaker, has made it her mission in recent years, writing columns for the Cowboy State Daily and launching a website, civics307, to combat misleading political campaigns and inform voters about the bills going through the state legislature.

She told the approximately 50 attendees Sunday afternoon at the Greybull senior center that she had a successful career as a U.S. Naval Officer and as a manager with General Electric, but that what is driving her interest in state politics and voting date are traits engrained in her by her parents. Her mother was a business manager at a YMCA while her dad ran a ranch.

“Growing up there were two things we had to do — one was to give blood, the other was to vote,” she said. “In 50 years, I’ve not missed voting in an election ... and I’ve been a registered voter in Wyoming the entire time.”

She said her mother also had a saying: “Government is how the community manages itself.”

“When I hear people knock the government,” she said, “I say look in a mirror because it’s how we manage ourselves. If you don’t like it, get registered, vote and select people who are going to represent us, with the idea of taking care of what’s important to us. 

“It means paying attention to issues that are important to us.”

Symons said she focuses more of her energy on what’s happening in Wyoming than in D.C., saying, “You can’t do anything about it anyway.”  Of most pressing concern right now are cuts to important services and programs.

“We want to change the conversation of the issues we’re talking about, away from red meat, hot button issues from the far corners of the political spectrum that don’t apply, to the ones that do,” she said. Among those are the availability of housing and affordable childcare, underfunded schools, libraries under attack, the state’s high suicide rate, health care deserts and mental illness.

“What we don’t have is people coming to take our guns, more than a dozen or so abortions ... it’s either not happening or it’s not happening at a level that impacts almost everyone.”

Symons says her work is non-partisan, but she described herself at one point Sunday as an “old school Wyoming conservative” who doesn’t like the direction the Freedom Caucus is leading the state.

The way to challenge its power, she said, is to focus on getting out the vote. Among the trends that troubled her the most, Symons said only 50% of eligible citizens are voting and that in reviewing the results, most legislative seats are decided in the primaries.

“Thirty percent of Republicans, in any given election, stay home in the primary,” she said.  “Last time, it was over 40 percent, just in this county.  

“We need to get people registered, and we need to get people who are registered to show up and vote.”

Symons credited the group for taking the first step by organizing meetings and discussing issues of importance.

“I want to take this idea, this gathering, and pour it over to all 23 counties to adopt,” she said. “Whatever we have to do to get the 18- to 30-year-olds, who only participate at a level of about 20 percent, as opposed to those 80 and over who participate at 80 percent.”

She urged attendees to continue spreading the word about getting registered to vote for the remainder of the year, to pay close attention to the budget session next winter and to spend next spring and summer recruiting and campaigning for candidates with whom their views align.

“As ugly as the campaigns were around the state last year, I expect them to be just as ugly this next year,” she said.

The group also heard from Carla Mowell, a Shell resident who shared information about the Congressional Award, a program open to all youth in the United States ages 14 to 24.  

The group plans to meet again in August.