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National Voter Registration Day gets boots on the ground

by CRAIG NORTHRUP
Staff Writer | September 23, 2020 1:09 AM

With 43 days until Election Day, Tuesday’s National Voter Registration Day saw activists man booths across the area to register voters.

Booths popped up in front of shopping centers and in parking lots in Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls to beat the Oct. 9 early registration deadline. Jessica Mahuron of the Civic Engagement Alliance said she and her team helped register more than 20 voters at Heritage Health in Coeur d’Alene Tuesday, as well as give election information to many more passersby.

“I’ve done voter registration at Heritage Health three years in a row,” she said, “but I felt there was more of a sense of urgency with the voters we registered this year. I saw real sense of pride with people as they registered. We give out these buttons after you register, and this year, they put them right on.”

National Voter Registration Day is one of the busiest voter registration days each calendar year. Going into this year, nearly three million have cumulatively registered to vote on the fourth Tuesday of each September since first observed in 2012. According to the holiday organizers’ website, in the past two years alone, about 1.3 million Americans registered to vote on this particular calendar day.

Mahuron predicted this year’s general election, however, would be one for the history books.

“I think we’re looking at what’s going to be one of the greatest voter turnouts in history,” she said. “There are so many organizations that have invested in helping people vote. I think there’s a feeling that the stakes are very high this year, that we’re in this historical moment.”

At least locally, she’s statistically right. Since the primary, Kootenai County’s voter rolls have grown by more than 7,000. On June 2, Kootenai County had about 89,160 voters. As of Tuesday morning, that number was 96,256 — and growing.

May’s all-absentee election saw more than 44,000 absentee ballot requests, with 32,800 returning them. While this November’s vote won’t be all-absentee, many are choosing to vote through the mail this year. According to the Kootenai County Elections Office, the county has received around 37,000 paper and online absentee requests.

While the first absentee ballots will likely be sent out before the end of September, residents might also see a custom surprise in their mailboxes in the next few days. Volunteers organized by the Civic Engagement Alliance recently took part in an annual nationwide mailer project, sending hand-crafted postcards reminding them to vote.

“The original goal was about 500 to 1,000 (postcards),” Mahuron said. “We got over 1,600 out, and we had 50 or so volunteers show up to help. This is a very popular activity.”

Those postcards targeted precincts reporting lower turnout in previous elections, in the hopes of generating community engagement.

The May election gave the Elections Office on Third Street a sort of dry run for November, when turnout is expected to increase dramatically as it usually does for presidential elections. Jennifer Locke, chief deputy clerk for Kootenai County, said things were running smoothly so far in the run-up to the election.

“We are doing very well,” Locke said Tuesday, “and working very hard.”

Even though National Voter Registration Day ended Tuesday, Mahuron said Civic Engagement Alliance will head to Heritage Health today — this time at its Post Falls campus at 925 E. Polston Ave. — for another registration drive.

Citizens can go to idahovotes.gov to request an absentee ballot and register to vote.

Election Day is Nov. 3.