May primary election could see historic turnout

The all-absentee ballot primary election could see a historic turnout both locally and statewide based on the number of absentee ballots requested.
 The Secretary of State’s office said the primary election is on track to have the largest voter turnout of any non-gubernatorial primary election in Idaho history, with the largest absentee ballot request ever recorded.
 A court order issued last week extended the deadline to request an absentee ballot from May 19 to May 26. All voters who submitted a request that arrived at the Washington County clerk’s office after the previous May 19 deadline will be issued a ballot, along with any additional requests received before May 26 at 8 p.m.
 As of May 19, with another week to go, the secretary of state’s election office reported that just over 415,500 Idahoans had requested absentee ballots to vote in the primary election. The number represented almost 46 percent of the state’s 907,342 voters.
 For comparison, statewide voter turnout for the March 2016 primary election was only 23 percent with 176,806 ballots cast.
 “The numbers truly speak for themselves,” said Secretary of State Lawerence Denney in a news release. “Voting is a right Idahoans hold dear and they were not going to let the coronavirus get in their way of participating in the May Primary Election. We want to say thank you to all of the Idahoans who adapted with us through these changing circumstances.”
 In a first for the state, Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney and Gov. Brad Little made the decision in late March to conduct the primary election entirely by absentee ballot, citing the risks posed to poll workers and the public from the coronavirus pandemic.
 The large number of absentee ballots requested by Washington County voters also portends for a large if not historic local turnout in the primary election. More than half of the registered voters in Washington County requested an absentee ballot.
 As of Tuesday, the county clerk’s office had received 3,336 requests for absentee ballots, a number that eclipsed earlier estimates. There were 5,518 registered voters in the county as of May 21.
 All ballots must be returned to the county clerk’s office by 8 p.m. on June 2.  In addition to mailing the ballots, the county clerk has a dropbox on the front steps of the courthouse. 
 To properly return the ballot, voters must insert it into the privacy sleeve that comes in the packet, then place that into the second outer envelope, sign it, and seal it before mailing the voted ballot back to the county clerk’s office.  
 Ballots should be returned as soon as possible to ensure they are received by the deadline. All ballots were sent with a pre-addressed official return envelope and also included pre-paid postage.
 Ballots will be counted and unofficial election results will begin to be released the evening of June 2 at 8 p.m. Official results will follow with the completion of the state election canvass.
 The secretary of state’s office mailed an absentee ballot request form to every registered voter in the state in April who had not already requested one. Voters choose a Republican or Democratic or non-partisan ballot for the primary election.
 Following the primary election, when political parties select their nominees to run for office, political parties and candidates will turn their attention to the November general election.
 Idaho held its presidential primary election in March, one of seven states that held presidential primaries on March 10, one week after Super Tuesday on March 3, when more than a dozen states held presidential primaries.
 In Washington County, a total of 1,856 ballots were cast out of 5,470 registered voters for a turnout of 33.9 percent.
 President Donald Trump handily won the statewide GOP primary vote. Trump took 94.5 percent of the total, or 111,342 votes.
 The Democrats went with former vice president Joe Biden. Biden picked up 52,735 votes, or 48.8 percent of the total.