Kootenai County sees high voter turnout

Amid high voter turnout in Tuesday's general election, Kootenai County election staff said voting equipment upgrades sped up tabulation.

About 67% of Kootenai County's 114,380 registered voters participated in the election, with 77,063 ballots cast. During the 2022 midterm election, about 63,000 Kootenai County voters took part. 

"That's pretty substantial for a midterm increase," said Kootenai County Clerk Jennifer Locke. 

She attributes the high turnout partly to Proposition 1, a ballot initiative that sought to repeal Idaho’s near-total abortion ban. Nearly all voters cast ballots in that race. The initiative ultimately failed, receiving about 44% of the vote. 

"I think that's probably a driving force," she said. 

Voters appeared motivated overall. 

"It was definitely an amazing turnout for a midterm," Locke said. 

Locke said some polling locations in Kootenai County had wait times on Election Day, but voting ran smoothly overall. 

In Idaho's second-most-populated county, long wait times meant some voters cast their ballots hours after polls closed. The last voter in Canyon County cast their ballot at 12:20 a.m., the Idaho Capital Sun reported. Though polls close at 8 p.m. local time, voters can still vote if they're in line by the cutoff time. 

Canyon County saw a 66% turnout with 79,036 ballots cast, about 2,000 more than Kootenai County. 

Locke said several factors contributed to the differences in how long voters spent in line and how long it took to tabulate results in two of Idaho's most populated counties. 

Canyon County has about 5,000 more registered voters than Kootenai County, 119,835 in total, but fewer precincts, with 51 compared to Kootenai County's 74. That means more voters in fewer polling places. 

Locke said it can be challenging to secure locations that meet federal accessibility requirements and are large enough to accommodate poll workers and large numbers of voters. 

"The hard thing for all the counties is you have to have a place that's ADA compliant," she said. "No polling place has to let you in except for schools. You have to think about the logistics of parking." 

Another factor impacting wait times is longer ballots. Ballots in Kootenai and Canyon counties were four pages long, meaning voters spent more time in the booths filling them out than usual. 

For the first time, Kootenai County used precinct-based ballot tabulation for Election Day voting. The county has used precinct paper ballot scanners for early voting since 2023 and rolled them out to polling locations countywide Tuesday. 

The new system allows precinct-based ballot scanners to scan Election Day paper ballots, then return the scanners and ballots to the Elections Office for data verification, results upload and ballot retention in accordance with state and federal law. 

"It went smoother than I imagined," Locke said. 

For decades, Kootenai County relied on a central-count model, in which ballots from polling places are transported to the Elections Office for tabulation. Locke said the precinct-based ballot scanners saved time and made it possible to have unofficial results available soon after midnight. 

"If we had central counted, it would've taken pretty long," she said. "It would've been in the early morning, for sure."