Registered voter turnout was 54.1 percent

Voter apathy wasn’t as rampant in Kootenai County as it appeared in the first days following last week’s election.

The percentage of registered voters who cast ballots in the Nov. 4 general election was 54.1, more than double the 22.3 percent initially reported by the county elections office.

“Originally the reporting software was figuring the voter percentage from the pages, not the total ballots cast,” said Carrie Phillips, elections manager.

The final unofficial results posted on the elections office’s website, www.kcgov.us/elections/results, stated until Thursday morning that “Voter Turnout-Total Pages” was 22.3 percent.

The results were updated Thursday to state “Voter Turnout” was 54.1 percent.

Philips said some of the information originally reported to the public with the election results — mainly the ballot page counts — was needed internally by elections office workers, but their inclusion in the results posted by the county made the report confusing for the public.

“That’s why those numbers are unofficial until they’re canvassed,” Phillips said.

Canvassing refers to the determination of the validity of votes and the official certification of the election results.

The Board of Commissioners is expected to canvass and certify the Nov. 4 election results Thursday at 4 p.m.

Prior to certification, election workers reconcile poll books. They count signatures and match the total with the number of ballots cast. They also match the number of ballots sent to each precinct with the number of spoiled, unused and used ballots reported.

Registered voter turnout in Kootenai County on Nov. 4 was consistent with the last mid-term election in 2010, when the voter percentage was just 4 percent greater, Phillips said.