North Idaho Voter Project seeks to address turnout

COEUR d'ALENE — A political action committee called the North Idaho Voter Project was established last week to address low voter turnout in the region and garner votes for Republican legislative candidates Luke Malek and Peter Riggs.

The project is funded through a $7,000 contribution from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe and a $5,000 contribution from the CenturyLink Idaho Political Action Committee — a voluntary, nonpartisan, employee-funded committee established by communications and data provider CenturyLink to allow its employees to pool their resources to support candidates and political causes. Helo Hancock, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe's legislative director, told The Press Tuesday that although the PAC was recently established, the committee had been discussed internally for a considerable amount of time.

"Voter turnout is abysmal and it’s gotten worse now since the Republican party chose to close its primary elections," Hancock said. "We currently have a very small percentage of eligible voters making decisions to elect the people who will represent all of us in Boise and the result of that has been an increasingly extremist agenda. We want candidates who are reasonable, smart and will do what’s best for the future of North Idaho."

To accomplish its goal of increasing voter turnout, the project will contact potential voters to inform them of how they can participate in the May 17 primary, as well as stressing the impact their vote could have on the outcome. In addition, Hancock said the phone call will also endorse two candidates — Incumbent Rep. Luke Malek, R-Coeur d'Alene, who is being challenged in the Republican primary by Art Macomber and Peter Riggs, who is challenging incumbent Rep. Don Cheatham, R-Post Falls.

"It's kind of a three-pronged approach," Hancock said. "We are identifying voters, helping them understand the importance of voting and there is a part that is helping educate them about good candidates. We are solidly behind both candidates and believe they are reasonable, intelligent individuals that will represent the citizens of North Idaho."

Hancock added the North Idaho Voter Project does not plan on endorsing any other candidates.

Heather Keen, Coeur d'Alene Tribe public relations director, added that, at the moment, the group only plans on reaching out to voters through phone calls.

The North Idaho Voter Project used the entirety of its $12,000 in donations to hire Tom Schwarz to facilitate the phone drive. Schwarz, an Idaho native who resides in Dallas, Texas, is described by Hancock as "an expert" in getting people out to vote.

Schwarz has also worked as a campaign manager and field director for primarily Democratic candidates in several states.

"Regardless of the types of campaigns he's been with in the past, he understands how to contact and identify voters and how to get voters out there and motivated to get to the polls," Hancock said. "That's really what we're looking at here — it's not really a partisan effort, it's just trying to motivate people."

Unaffiliated voters, he added as an example, make up a large portion of North Idaho's population. The phone campaign aims to get those voters, who are not eligible to vote in the Republican primaries, educated on how to register as a Republican to participate in the primary.

"And we felt like Tom could develop a blueprint here that would really help," Hancock said.

Hancock added he has discussed the purpose of the North Idaho Voter Project with many interested groups throughout the state.

"I think people are looking at what we are doing to see what impact it may have on these elections," he added. "It's just trying to connect with voters and getting them to understand how important it is to participate in this election process."