When accused of election fraud, Idaho conducted audits. Officials want to keep them going
A new bill, meant to increase trust in elections, would direct the Idaho secretary of state’s office to audit elections in randomly selected precincts around the state.
The bill comes amid persistent, unfounded election fraud claims after the 2020 presidential election. Former President Donald Trump and his supporters, including an Idaho House member who’s campaigning to be the state’s top election official, continue to cast doubt on the validity of the 2020 election, in Idaho and elsewhere.
The bill would create a system of random audits following general and primary elections. The policy is meant to, first, identify election issues, but also to “build voter confidence in the integrity of Idaho elections,” said Deputy Secretary of State Jason Hancock.
Hancock on Friday presented the new policy to the Senate State Affairs Committee, which unanimously voted to introduce it as a bill.
“Everything I have seen in my work with elections at the secretary’s office tells me that Idaho elections are being conducted with a high level of integrity,” Hancock said. “But rather than telling the public, ‘Trust us,’ we would much rather be able to say that we have a regular system of random post-election audits in place and that we have verified the accuracy and the integrity of our system.”
The secretary of state’s office introduced a similar bill during last year’s legislative session, Hancock said. The House passed the previous bill on a party-line vote, but it died in a Senate committee.
The audit system was conceived after “widespread and unusually specific allegations about election fraud that had supposedly taken place” in 2020, Hancock said. False claims of widespread voter fraud by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell had gained national traction. In response, the secretary of state’s office audited three counties, confirming there was no election fraud.
“This piece of legislation would formalize that kind of a process,” Hancock said.
Under the bill, the secretary of state would randomly select counties organized by population — for audits to ensure paper ballots match tabulated results. The legislation would authorize the secretary of state’s office to order additional audits if inconsistencies are discovered.
The audits would cost the secretary of state’s office up to $50,000 annually and up to $100,000 every four years, when primary and general elections occur in the same year. The proposed audits would be for state and federal office elections only, not local elections.
Idaho GOP continues to doubt election results
Meanwhile, some Idaho Republicans continue to dispute the 2020 results. Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, a candidate for governor, in September issued a statement calling on all 50 states to audit their elections.
Rep. Dorothy Moon, a Stanley Republican running for secretary of state, insists that Idaho’s elections need reform due to fraud. She recently teased an election integrity bill she plans to introduce during this year’s legislative session.
“We do have election integrity issues in the state, contrary to what some people would want the public to believe,” Moon told reporters last month.
Secretary of State Lawerence Denney has not announced whether he will run for reelection. Already in the race, alongside Moon, to replace Denney are Republicans Phil McGrane, currently the Ada County Clerk, and Sen. Mary Souza of Coeur d’Alene.
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 2:39 PM.
