Ballot snafu in Meridian throws close, costly City Council race results into question
Meridian absentee ballots mailed out to voters ahead of the Nov. 2 election did not properly rotate the candidates’ names for a Meridian City Council race, throwing the outcome of that tight and costly race into question.
Idaho code requires that ballots for council races rotate each candidate’s name precinct by precinct, so each name ends up at the top of the ballot an equal number of times, roughly. That did not happen for 1,573 Meridian absentee ballots, the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office said Friday.
Jason Hancock, deputy secretary of state, said that during the ballot printing process, the Ada County Clerk’s Office noticed that the names were not rotating in one Meridian City Council race, Seat 6. Luke Cavener and Scott Garbarino’s names were rotating, but the third candidate, Mike Hon, was stuck in the third position on the ballots. Luke Cavener and Scott Garbarino’s names were rotating.
One of the major concerns with the ballot issue is that Hon lost the race to Cavener by 56 votes. Hon said on Facebook that he would be requesting a recount. The recount would cost him $100 per precinct, said Chelsea Carattini.
| Seat | Candidate | Votes | Pct | Money raised | Spent per vote |
| 2 | Joe Borton | 7,759 | 58.7% | $29,371 | $3.79 |
| 2 | Hunter Wolf | 5,467 | 41.3% | None listed | $0 |
| 4 | Adam Nelson | 6,560 | 49% | $5,500 | $0.84 |
| 4 | Treg Bernt | 6,832 | 51% | $29,930 | $4.38 |
| 6 | Luke Cavener | 6,380 | 47.3% | $37,530 | $5.88 |
| 6 | Mike Hon | 6,324 | 46.9% | $6,004 | $0.95 |
| 6 | Scott Garbarino | 785 | 5.8% | None listed | $0 |
Money raised through Oct. 10, the latest available. Winners in boldface. Unofficial results.
Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane said if ballots were being printed properly, Hon’s name would have been atop a third of the 1,573 ballots cast.
“It was too late to change that fact with the absentee ballots, because they had been mailed out,” Hancock said Friday by phone. “But they were able to run new ballots for people who early voted and in-person on Election Day.”
Election Day voters cast 10,413 ballots, and early voters cast 1,503 ballots.
“This was a technical mistake,” Hancock said. “I don’t know whether this made a difference in the race or not.”
In a letter McGrane wrote to Secretary of State Lawerence Denney that was posted to Hon’s campaign Facebook page, McGrane said the purpose of rotating candidate names on the ballot is to counteract the “ballot order effect,” which happens when a voter does not know any of the candidates in a race, so the voter selects the first name.
“The significance of this effect is marginal, but rotation is used because it can potentially be a significant factor if the difference is narrow,” McGrane wrote.
In his letter, McGrane asked Denney to seek judicial review. A court could determine whether the issue was significant enough to warrant a new special election. It could also keep the results as is and address any court challenges from the candidates.
Whatever the outcome, McGrane said the Elections Office plans to work with all of the candidates in the race.
Cavener and Hon did not respond to a request for comment.
Hon said on Facebook that his campaign is waiting for the secretary of state’s reply.
The ballot glitch was first reported by BoiseDev.
