Vote for a great election day

Kootenai County Elections workers were thrilled to see 8,144 residents register to vote in one day.

Just not so thrilled about which day — Nov. 6, 2012. Yep: The day of the last presidential election.

If you divided that 8,144 by 70 precincts, you’d have a manageable 116 people at each one. But that’s not what happened. Most packed several of the largest precincts in Coeur d’Alene, Hayden and Post Falls. The crush of last-minute registrants paralyzed those precincts, creating long lines and short tempers. Put that kind of stress on any infrastructure and mistakes are certain to happen. And they did, though none with catastrophic consequences.

We bring you this blast from the past on the last day of July for a reason: So one difficult chapter of local elections history does not repeat itself. And how do we do that? It’s simple, really: Don’t wait to register or re-register to vote.

The Elections Office reminds us that new Kootenai County residents and anyone who hasn’t voted before needs to register if they wish to vote. If you voted before but you’ve moved or your name has changed, you need to re-register. This includes people getting married and changing their names, as well as citizens who have moved into assisted living or nursing homes. The elections office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays at 1808 N. Third St. in Coeur d’Alene, and you can also register at any Department of Motor Vehicles office. You can also call Elections at 446-1030 if you’ve got questions.

To be clear at the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, a great many of those last-minute registrants in 2012 were young people. We say hallelujah to young voters! Bring ‘em on — the more the better! But we also say, please don’t wait until Nov. 8, 2016, to register. You can get lots of information and even access a voter registration form by going to: idahovotes.gov

We filled out the form and it took less than four minutes. The form is ready to mail.

Knowing that fewer young adults read the newspaper than we’d like, we ask all you parents and grandparents of voting-age children to encourage them to register soon to vote. Who knows? Maybe you can even convince them to vote for the candidates you’re supporting.