Biden wins mail-in Wyoming Democratic caucus

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Joe Biden has won Wyoming’s Democratic presidential caucus, which had been postponed for two weeks and scaled back to only mail-in ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic, state party officials said Sunday.

The results were announced less than two weeks after Bernie Sanders dropped out and endorsed Biden, who is the only candidate still actively seeking the Democratic nomination. Voting began when it was still a two-candidate race.

The Wyoming Democratic Party announced the results after tabulating votes Saturday and auditing the results overnight.

What was originally to be a combination of in-person caucusing, dropoff and mail-in vote tabulation April 4 was scaled back to only dropoff and mail-in — and finally only mail-in voting.

Party officials then pushed back the due date for mailed ballots and tabulation to help ensure participation.

The mailed-in ballots were due at Wyoming Democratic Party headquarters Friday. Party officials used a courier to drive the ballots to Denver for tabulation.

The party for the first time used ranked-choice voting to allocate delegates to the Democratic National Convention in August. Voters could rank up to five candidates according to their preference.

Besides Biden and Sanders, Hawaii U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg; Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren; Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar; and investor Tom Steyer of San Francisco; were on the ballot.