Absentee ballot requests set March record

Today is the last day to sign up for March 9 absentee ballots, and it's already a record-breaker.

As of mid-afternoon Thursday, the Kootenai County Elections Office had received 4,134 requests for mail order ballots — double the 2,085 requested for the last March election, in 2019.

"We attribute it to a couple of factors," County Clerk Jim Brannon said. "One is last year's all-mail primary, where a lot of people got used to getting their ballots and voting absentee."

Another, deputy clerk Jennifer Locke said, is the activation of idahovotes.gov, an online platform run by the state to request election information. About 70% of the requests for absentee ballots have gone through the state portal, Locke said.

"Having that online portal makes it easy for people to go online and request their ballot," she said. "It's exciting to see how many people are getting involved."

Early voting is also ongoing, Brannon said, and will continue through Friday, March 5. As of Thursday, a total of 136 Kootenai County citizens had participated in the process — including Brannon.

The uptick in participation is a happy note to elections officials.

"It appears this is a trend," Brannon said. "But if I've learned one thing about voting it is that if there is no interest in the election, then no one comes out."

On the ballot are the:

• Lakeland Joint School District #272 Supplemental Levy
• Coeur d’Alene School District #271 Supplemental Levy
• Post Falls School District #273 Supplemental Levy
• Kootenai Joint School District #274 Supplemental Maintenance and Operations Levy

Absentee request forms must be submitted to the Elections Office before 5 p.m. today to be considered valid. The form can also be emailed to the Kootenai County Elections Office at kcelections@kcgov.us or requested online at www.idahovotes.gov.