Idaho 2020 Primary Election results: West Ada, Middleton school levies fail
Results are complete for the candidates voters will send on to 2020’s general election in November in several key positions, including county sheriff, prosecutor and commissioners.
West Ada, Middleton school levies
School levies in the West Ada and Middleton school districts failed to garner the simple majority needed to pass Tuesday night.
Voters in the West Ada School District, the state’s largest, rejected a two-year, $28 million levy by eight points. The vote was to renew an existing levy at its current amount.
Nearly 54% (24,914) voted against the levy , with a little over 46% (21,453) in favor.
Meanwhile, the Middleton School District continued to struggle at the ballot box, losing its fifth straight bond or levy election in the past three years.
It fell 150 votes short of the needed majority, with 2,364 (51.6%) voting against the levy and 2,214 for. Middleton proposed an increase in its levy from $1.31 million to $1.5 million per year for two years.
Middleton’s superintendent, Sherawn Reberry, also resigned earlier in the day. And the district became the state’s largest to move to a four-day school week earlier this month.
Ada County results
In Ada County, incumbent Diana Lachiondo, a Democrat, is running unopposed in the primary to maintain her first district commission seat. Bill Rutherford, also a Democrat, is vying for the county commission’s second district seat unopposed, while Ron Twilegar is running unopposed for county prosecutor on the Democratic ticket.
They’ll face the winners of the Republican primary in the Nov. 3 general election.
Ryan Davidson won the Republican primary and will challenge Lachiondo in the fall. He earned 60.8% of the vote and 24,253 votes to Davidson Haworth’s 15,665 votes.
Rod Beck also won the Republican primary for the county commission’s second district seat. He had 47.9% of the vote in a five-way race, more than 12,000 votes ahead of the nearest competitor.
Incumbent Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts, a Republican, will face Twilegar in the general.
Canyon County results
In Canyon County, incumbent Leslie Van Beek won the primary with 58% of the vote (12,818 total votes) for the county commission’s first district seat on the Republican ticket, beating out challengers John Hess and Mike Pullin. Hess and Pullin received 29% (6,419 votes) and 13% (2,875 votes), respectively.
For the commission’s second district, Chuck Stadick, Keri Smith-Sigman, Brad Holton and Loni Parry ran as Republicans to fill the seat of outgoing Commissioner Tom Dale. Smith-Sigman won the primary with 35.8% of the vote, or 7,795 total votes. Holton garnered 33% (7,197 votes), while Stadick and Parry garnered 19.6% (4,263 votes) and 11.7% (2,540 votes) respectively.
No Democrats filed to run for either Canyon County commission seat.
Coronavirus forces mail-only primary election
Idaho’s 2020 primary was unlike any previous statewide election: All voters cast their ballots absentee — by mail — instead of gathering at polling places.
The reasons: concerns about COVID-19 spread and a lack of polling places and poll workers.
The primary had been slated for Tuesday, May 19. When Idaho Gov. Brad Little ordered a mail-ballot only primary, May 19 became the final day to request an absentee ballot and Tuesday, June 2, the day all returned ballots would counted.
A federal judge on May 22 extended the ballot-request deadline to May 26 in response to a series of problems with the Idaho Votes website.
The successful primary election candidates will then go on to participate in the 2020 general election Nov. 3.
This story was originally published June 2, 2020 at 9:39 PM.
