Election 2020 in Idaho: Ada, Canyon counties report record-breaking voter turnout
Idaho residents voted in droves in this year’s election — both in person Tuesday, early at various sites and through the mail.
The state’s largest county marked its highest voter turnout in history, as Ada County surpassed 225,000 ballots before 3 p.m. Tuesday. Its previous record was set during the last presidential election year, as 202,971 cast ballots in 2016.
Neighboring Canyon County had passed the 70,000 mark by Tuesday afternoon, well on its way to a similar total reached during the 2016 presidential election.
On Oct. 15, the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office announced that the state had passed over 1 million registered voters, which was reported after voter registration closed on Oct. 9. However, Idaho residents can register to vote on Election Day. As of Nov. 2, there were 1,010,984 registered voters in Idaho, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
For the 2016 presidential election, Idaho had 805,074 people registered to vote before the cutoff date, and reported that 131,455 people registered to vote at the polls.
In total there were 936,529 registered voters for the 2016 election, and 710,545 — or 75.87% — cast a ballot.
More than 40% of those registered to vote before the Oct. 9 deadline requested an absentee ballot this year. Idaho officials urged residents to vote through the mail in order to cut down on the number of people heading to polling places amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Ada County
Many voters in Idaho’s largest county didn’t wait till Election Day, but election officials tweeted that the county hit 50,000 in-person votes Tuesday just after 2:30 p.m. Polls don’t close until 8 p.m.
Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane said it had been a pretty busy day, but no big issues had arisen as of Tuesday afternoon. McGrane said the turnout was exciting to see.
“There’s no question this will be a record-setting election,” McGrane told the Statesman. “It’s been a huge lift for our office.”
The higher turnout is partly a result of Ada County’s growth in the past few years, he said.
At around 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, the county election office tweeted that about 66% of Ada County’s registered voters had already cast their ballots. That included those who took advantage of in-person early voting and absentee ballots, as well as those who voted early in the morning.
At around 2:30 p.m., the county reported that it had 5,425 Election Day registrations. McGrane estimated that around 50 people had utilized a voting center for people who tested positive for the coronavirus.
For the November 2016 election, 202,971 of the county’s 230,425 registered voters cast their ballot, meaning the turnout was a little over 88%. That was higher than the most recent midterms, as 78.2% of registered voters in Ada County cast their ballots in 2018, according to the county.
As of Nov. 2, Ada County had 300,208 registered voters, according to numbers from the Secretary of State’s Office. The largest age group among Ada County voters is people 18-34 — totaling 78,765 registered voters. People 35-49 make up 77,204 of the county’s voters.
Ada County issued 192,195 absentee ballots as of Oct. 30. As of Monday, it had received 174,231 ballots via mail and early voting.
The number of people casting ballots through in-person early voting in Ada County grew, with the elections office reporting that number at 51,152. In 2016, 47,616 people chose to do early in-person voting.
Canyon County
The announcement of a reduced number of voting centers for Election Day caused a shaky start to the season, but Canyon County officials said over 70,000 people had cast their ballots in the November election by Tuesday afternoon.
As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, Canyon County had 12,731 people vote in-person, according to county spokesperson Joe Decker. Early in-person voting netted the county 26,787 ballots, and as of Friday, returned absentee ballots totaled 31,383.
County spokesperson Joe Decker said Canyon had not had many issues arise, other than an equipment problem that was quickly resolved. He said that a long line had formed at the Celebration Church voting place in Nampa after a handful of voters wanted to spoil their absentee ballots and vote in person instead. The line grew, as some people who had an absentee ballot issued didn’t have it with them. Decker said it can take some time to invalidate the absentee ballot and issue a new one.
However, the line at the church dissipated and wait times were reduced, he said.
Decker said the county usually sees waves of voters in the morning when doors open, as well as in the evenings from around 5-8 p.m. This means Canyon County may very likely break its voting totals from the 2016 presidential election.
“I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if we set a record this year,” Decker said.
During the 2016 election, Canyon County voters cast 72,765 votes in the presidential race, according to the county’s election history.
As of Nov. 2, Canyon County had 109,910 registered voters, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. The county’s largest group of registered voters are those 65 and older, totaling 28,801 people. The next largest group is adults age 18-34, accounting for 28,010 people.
Canyon County opened 21 polling places for the Nov. 3 election, far fewer than it normally has. This occurred after the county clerk’s office announced just five polling places in September, but county officials later said they failed to articulate that more polling places would be established.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 4:01 PM.
