Will races, issues boost voter turnout?

Midterm elections usually don’t attract the kind of voter turnout that is seen during a presidential year election. 

 My hunch as a seasoned election pundit is that there is enough interest in the political races and ballot measures to bring people out to the polls on Tuesday.

 Nationally, the election is in large part a referendum on the first two years of the Trump presidency. 

 His supporters will seek to re-elect a congress that will continue his agenda. Opponents who want change are highly motivated to vote as well. 

 There is a significant class of women politicians running for office in Idaho and across the country in this election cycle. I suspect that will add to the interest in the election.

 I’m a traditionalist and will vote on Nov. 6 like I have during every election since Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter for the presidency in 1980.

 In Idaho, it’s worth voting just to have a say in the two ballot measures.

 Proposition 1 doesn’t impact the state a whole lot economically, but it has a surprisingly high profile. Approval of the measure would allow the return of video betting terminals at horse and dog tracks if they offer a certain number of racing days per year.

 I knew big money would back the opposition to Proposition 1, and it has generated the most ads on TV.

 I have not clearly understood the message from opponents of Proposition 1. They imply that “out of state” interests are behind the effort to put horse racing video terminals back at tracks and hint that this is a bad thing.

 With hollow hyperbole, they suggest that this somehow opens the door to widespread gambling. The historical, or “hysterical,” as one newspaper editorial put it, video racing terminals are like a gateway drug for gamblers.

 I don’t buy it, not when you pull back the curtain and see that tribal casinos are funding the opposition to Prop. 1. They have an interest to protect, surely. But why don’t they just come out and say that they want people to gamble on their machines and not somewhere else.

 If passage of Prop. 1 and the return of the video terminals keep horse tracks in business and boost the coffers of Idaho communities, why not? 

 Les Bois racetrack in Garden City folded after the machines were yanked from the clubhouse. They were a source of income and kept the track going in a low-margin business.

 When the track was operational, there were people employed there in the restaurant and lounge. There were growers of horse feed that had a market. Horse owners spent money in the area when they came to race. Where was the negative in this?

 Even Gov. Butch Otter earlier this week threw his support behind the passage of Proposition 1. He’s a former team roper and cowboy and wants to see the horse business back in business.

 I won’t say much about Proposition 2. I’ll direct readers to Dr. Mary Barinaga’s letter on the following opinion page. She makes a pretty strong case for voting in favor of Medicaid expansion. 

 You can localize the issue and see benefits for our own Weiser Memorial Hospital. Low income people with or without Medicaid go to the ER when they are really sick. 

 When they do, the hospital here, along with rural hospitals all across the state, should get paid for their services. 

 Steve Lyon is the editor of the Weiser Signal American. Contact him at scoop@signalamerican.com