CHEYENNE - Once securely in the Republican camp, Teton County has experienced growth over the past four years in the number of registered Democrats.

Teton County also was one of only two Wyoming counties that "went blue" and voted for Democratic president-elect Barack Obama in the general election.

The other "blue" county was Albany.

In 2004, after the registration rolls were purged of people who didn't vote in the general election, Teton County had 11,875 registered voters, including 6,023 Republicans, 2,824 Democrats and 3,013 unaffiliated.

As of last week, Teton County had 13,733 voters, including 5,896 Republicans, 4,588 Democrats and 3,167 unaffiliated.

Republicans went from 50 percent of the total registered voters to 42.9 percent.

Democrats grew from 23 percent to 33 percent.

Ten years ago, Republican registrations in Teton County totaled 54 percent of the total compared to 21 percent for Democrats and 23 percent for unaffiliated voters, according to the secretary of state's Web site.

"There is a trend," said Sharon Nethercott, elections supervisor for Teton County.

"This is a resort area and a lot of the young people who come here are from back East and California and predominately Democratic areas, and we're getting a lot of those voters now.

"The fact that Gary Trauner is from this county, too, in the past two elections, I think is worth a lot of votes, too," she added.

Trauner, a Wilson businessman, ran for Congress in 2006 and lost by half a percentage point to Republican incumbent Barbara Cubin.

This year he lost the general election to Cynthia Lummis of Cheyenne, a lawyer, former state treasurer and former legislator.

Larry Hamilton, chairman of the Teton County Democratic party, cited several reasons for the increase in Democratic registrations.

One was an aggressive get-out-the-vote effort before and after the Teton Democratic county convention and caucus in Jackson.

"The state Democratic convention was also held in Jackson, which generated more local interest in the political process," Hamilton said in an e-mail.

In addition, several recent local high school graduates worked on registering students who would be 18 years old by election day. The county Democrats also held several social functions and rallies that targeted young people who were not registered to vote.

The effort was helped by the national election, which generated a lot of interest among people who had not voted in the past, Hamilton said.

"We also advertised in the newspapers and on the radio how important it is to have a voice in selecting our political leaders," he added.

Phil Roberts, a University of Wyoming history professor, noted that Teton County led the state in the percentage of Obama delegates to the county caucus followed closely by Albany County.

The turnout for the county caucus was huge, Roberts said, as it was in Albany County.

Roberts said that while Teton County's growth in Democratic voters was in line with the overall state trend, he finds Campbell County's voter registration figures on the secretary of state election Web site "astonishing."

He noted a big growth in Republican registrations in Campbell County.

"It's inexplicable why it should do that because there was a very significant increase in Democratic registrations in most counties except there," Roberts said.

In Campbell County as of the Nov. 4 general election day, the number of registered Republican voters was 11,984, or 78 percent of the total.

The Democrats had 1,831, or 12 percent of the total voter registrations while unaffiliated held six percent.

Four years ago Campbell County Republicans dominated voter registration with 81.8 percent of the total.

U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, a Republican and former Gillette mayor, was on the ballot this year but so was Nick Carter, a Gillette lawyer and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Roberts pointed out.

Decades ago Teton, Crook, Park, Niobrara and Big Horn were the major Republican counties, he said, while Campbell County was then small and wasn't as heavily Republican.

With an 80 percent Republican registration as of 2008 general election day, Crook County still is more heavily Republican than Campbell County.

Contact capital bureau reporter Joan Barron at (307) 632-1244 or joan.barron@trib.com