Absentee ballot requests open for May 19 primary

COEUR d’ALENE — Voters can still request absentee ballots ahead of the May 19 primary election.

A total of 4,122 Kootenai County voters have requested absentee ballots so far. The deadline to do so is 5 p.m. May 8. 

Ahead of the 2024 primary election, 8,364 Kootenai County voters requested absentee ballots, and 7,101 voters returned those ballots. In 2022, the number of absentee ballot requests was 6,954 and 6,019 were returned. 

Kootenai County Clerk Jennifer Locke said it’s tough to predict whether absentee ballot requests will be similar to previous years. 

Most county-level races are contested, she noted, as are most races for seats on the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. Competitive races often see a bigger push for voters to request absentee ballots. 

“It’ll be interesting to see if that drives turnout on the ballot,” she said. 

Only two legislative primary races are contested this year: the Republican contests between incumbent Vito Barbieri and challenger Eric Seeley for the District 3A seat and between incumbent Elaine Price and challenger Christa Hazel for the District 4B seat. 

Locke said the latter race could drive voters to the polls. 

“I’m sure there’s going to be a decent amount of money going into both of those races,” she said. “We could see a higher turnout in District 4 because of it. It’ll be interesting to see.” 

All registered voters in Idaho may request absentee ballots to be mailed to their addresses. Voters can fill out the request form online at VoteIdaho.gov or print out a form on the same website and mail it to the county clerk’s office. Absentee ballots must be returned by 8 p.m. on Election Day. 

Early voting will run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from May 4 to May 15. 

In Idaho, the Republican and Libertarian primary elections are closed to voters not affiliated with those parties. Unaffiliated voters can choose to affiliate with a party on Election Day and vote in that party’s primary. 

The Democratic primary election is open to all registered voters regardless of party affiliation. That means unaffiliated voters can participate in the Democratic primary election and remain unaffiliated. 

While partisan ballots will include both partisan and nonpartisan primary races, nonpartisan ballots will include only nonpartisan races and ballot questions, including judges and levies. 

Voters can check their sample ballot at VoteIdaho.gov. 

“We’re really emphasizing and training people to point voters to these sample ballots so they understand what they’re choosing,” Locke said. “The parties make those rules, not us.”