When Secretary of State Lawerence Denney had his budget hearing before the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Thursday, new JFAC member Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, took the opportunity to press for election changes in Idaho, including ending early voting and sharply restricting absentee voting. “Election integrity is at the top of people’s minds these days,” Nate told Denney. “In fact, a citizens committee kind of formed itself and went through some issues … among them including that we have paper ballots, therefore a paper trail. … That voting is done in person, that voting by mail is kept to an absolute minimum – in fact I remember a time when I had to sign an affidavit saying why I couldn’t vote on election day – and to keep early voting to as minimum as possible.”
Nate was referring to a self-designated “Citizens Committee for Election Integrity” that held a meeting in the Lincoln Auditorium on Jan. 2 and unanimously adopted a list of “minimum standards for fair and honest elections.” The 28 “delegates” comprising the committee included Doyle Beck, Brent Regan, Rod Beck, Viki Purdy, Danielle Ahrens, Art Macomber and Ed Humphreys. The group declared in a press release that its “common-sense standards shall be used by local, state and federal legislators to craft and amend election law that ensures honest elections.” Idaho GOP Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo then dutifully read the group’s statement into the Congressional Record.
However, the group’s 14 “minimum standards for fair and honest elections,” which cover things like requiring voter ID and that “all votes, regardless of voting method, shall be held to equal standards,” don’t say anything about doing away with no-excuse absentee voting or early voting, two of the most popular trends among Idaho voters in recent elections.
Denney told Nate that Idaho already has a paper trail for every ballot, and always has. “Idaho is a 100% paper ballot state,” he said. “As far as the absentee and requiring something, that is a policy decision. Right now that is not the case, but if that’s something that you want to try to do, we will accommodate whatever the policy is that you direct us to do.”
“The election I think ran very smoothly,” Denney told JFAC, “and we are very thankful for that, of all the things that could have happened that didn’t happen. I think Idaho ran very, very smoothly.”
The proposed budget for Denney’s office for next year of $3.6 million in stage general funds reflects a more than 7% decline from this year’s level; the only line item is $30,000 for publishing the Idaho Blue Book, which comes out every other year. “Hopefully this is kind of a breather year for us because we don’t have any federal elections,” Denney said. “The major election this fall will be the cities.”
The office has been phasing in its new campaign finance reporting system for state and local elections. “We hope that our new election system is totally rolled out and smoothed out and ready to go for the May 2022 primary elections,” Denney said.
