Battling imaginary fraud, GOP lawmakers ignore problems in voting system, other issues
The key to getting legislation moving at the Idaho Legislature is simple: It can’t aim to solve a real problem facing everyday Idahoans. It must be aimed at a fever dream, a figment of the imagination, a paranoid fantasy.
This week, the House State Affairs committee sent two such pieces of legislation to the House floor.
The first, sponsored by Rep. Dorothy Moon, R-Stanley – notably, a candidate for secretary of state – is a wholesale overhaul of voting rules in Idaho, including a ban on same-day voter registration, a ban on using student IDs for voter identification purposes and a ban on the use of affidavits when a voter doesn’t have ID at the polls.
Asked by Rep. Chris Mathias, D-Boise, whether there were examples of abuses in these areas in the state of Idaho, Moon predictably could not name a single one.
The second, sponsored by Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird — a candidate for lieutenant governor — bans the use of ballot drop boxes for absentee votes, a vital asset in rural areas like Owyhee County, where an elderly voter might have an unmanageable drive to turn in their legitimate ballot at a polling station. Again, this bill sailed through committee despite absolutely no evidence that any problem exists.
On the topic of voter fraud, it bears repeating: Numerous national reviews of the evidence find that voter fraud is exceedingly rare. One of the only recent examples where it was significant enough to impact the outcome comes from a conservative campaign operation in North Carolina, run by a multiple-time felon. It was caught before the election was certified, and a new election was ordered.
It also bears repeating that the reason this is such a front-burner issue for right-wing Republicans in many states is because of Donald Trump’s Big Lie: that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, despite all evidence to the contrary.
There have been some real problems in Idaho elections of late, ones that lawmakers could address if they were serious about the issue.
- Election officials in Madison County have more than once posted signs telling students they might lose scholarships if they cast local ballots.
- A Kootenai County poll worker is currently facing trial for distributing materials warning of critical race theory at a polling station.
And there are much bigger issues with government integrity in Idaho than elections, ones that could easily be addressed:
- Idaho still has no asset disclosure law for public officials. If you run for federal office, you have to disclose what companies you own, the stock you hold, your income sources, and similar information for members of your immediate family. Idaho has no equivalent rule. So you have to rely on the lawmaker’s word to disclose when they have a conflict of interest — and there have been more than a few lawmakers in recent years who have shown a total lack of integrity.
- Idaho law fails to take lawmakers’ conflicts of interest seriously. Under current rules, lawmakers do not have to abstain from votes on matters where they have a direct business interest. They can use their vote to make money, as long as they announce their intention to do so.
- Idaho campaign finance laws are toothless. Violations of campaign finance laws in Idaho are common because the penalties are so small as to make the laws meaningless.
But for any of these real problems to be solved, a majority of Idaho’s Republican lawmakers would have to agree to hold themselves and their political donors — rather than imagined bad guys — accountable.
That’s a task they’re not equal to.
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 1:02 PM.