Poll position
Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations attorney Norm Gissel, left, and Idaho Human Rights Commission president Brian Scigliano listen to a speaker Friday morning during a meeting between the commission, officers of the Task Force and the director of Coeur d'Alene Tribal Employment Rights Office. The meeting was held as one of the commission's first steps to re-establish itself around the state and strengthen relationships with human rights leaders in Idaho communities. (DEVIN WEEKS/Press)
By JUDD WILSON
Staff writer
COEUR d’ALENE — How often have the candidates who want your vote this year gone to the polls themselves? According to records from the Kootenai County Elections Office, some candidates have seen the polls nearly as often as they have been open, while some others have visited their voting stations less frequently.
The candidate who voted most often is Republican county clerk Jim Brannon, who voted 25 times during the 28 elections held in Kootenai County from May 27, 2008, through the present primary elections. Of the 28 elections, one in August 2013 was a levy election restricted to voters in the Plummer-Worley School District.
The candidates who voted least often were Republican state senate candidate Michael S. Pereira and Democratic county commission candidate Ruben Miranda, who each voted four times, and Democratic state legislative candidate Maria Andrews, who voted once. Andrews said she moved to Kootenai County from the Chicago area in fall 2016.
Candidates’ voting frequency in Kootenai County from May 27, 2008 to the present:
County office candidates
Republicans: Jim Brannon 25, Warren Keene 24, Luke Sommer 23, Russell McLain 22, Richard Houser 21, Bill Brooks 21, Marc Eberlein 15, Bob Bingham 15, Steven Matheson 15, Leslie Duncan 13, Bob Thornton 12.
Democrats: Ruben Miranda 4.
District 2 state legislative candidates
Democrats: Richard Kohles 23, Dale Broadsword 19, Alanna Brooks 13, Maria Andrews 1.
Republicans: Steve Vick 21, Vito Barbieri 21, Fritz Wiedenhoff 20, John Green 14, Doug Okuniewicz 13.
District 3 state legislative candidates
Democrats: Pat Lippert 21, Dan Hanks 9.
Republicans: Kathy Sims 20, Ron Mendive 15, Tony Wisniewski 15, Don Cheatham 10.
District 4 state legislative candidates
Democrats: Cory Jane English 19, Rebecca Schroeder 6, Shem Hanks 6.
Republicans: Mary Souza 22, Jim Addis 18, Paul Amador 14, Roger Garlock 5, Michael S. Pereira 4.
Voter turnout rates typically rise during presidential elections and decline when only local matters are on the ballot. For example, only 8.45 percent of registered voters in Kootenai County cast a ballot during the November 2017 municipal elections. In contrast, 87.25 percent of Kootenai County’s registered voters voted when the White House was up for grabs in November 2016.
Abstaining from voting may not indicate disinterest in politics, but be a form of political protest, as Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby wrote in 2016: “When candidates are odious, when their campaigns traffic in character-assassination, when election ads are no more than shameless pandering, declining to pull the lever for any of them might well be the response of an engaged and rational voter.”