Are you sure you can vote?
Terisa Dunson, and her husband and their pup pose with their "I voted" stickers. The couple made it a point to register to vote soon after moving to the community.
(Courtesy photo)
A lot of voters in Boundary County are unaware that they actually are not registered to vote, according to Boundary County Clerk Glenda Poston. Sometimes they learn they are unable to vote only when they show up at the polls on election night and their names are not in the official poll book.
“There are a lot of people moving into Boundary County, and the state they moved from may have different voter regulations than ours,” Poston said. “There are 50 states with 50 ways of doing things, and in Idaho, all 44 counties go by Idaho Code.
“One thing that surprises some voters moving into the county is that as of now, we all are asked to declare a party on our voting registration. Voters who do not designate a party affiliation are, by default, assumed to be unaffiliated,” she said.
She clears up a common misconception, explaining that there is no official recognition of the name “Independent” in the Idaho elections system. “Our mind set is to call ourselves “independent,” but in our elections, that designation is ‘unaffiliated.’”
To vote, newcomers like everyone else must register, and to register they must have been here for 30 days. Along with filling out the registration card, they must have a current, approved photo ID (Idaho driver’s license or ID card, U.S. Passport or Federal Photo ID, Tribal ID card, or concealed weapons license issued by an Idaho county sheriff).
Citizens who want to vote also must bring an approved proof of residence document. There are 10 types of approved documents, including any of the photo IDs listed with the correct residence address, utility bill, bank or credit card statement.
When voters go to the wrong voting location or do not know which precinct they are in, a poll worker can direct them to the correct voting place by their address, Poston said. But if they are unable to vote, it’s a much bigger problem.
There is an easy solution, though, for both problems. Everyone who wants to vote this year or the next may easily check their registration status online at voteidaho.gov/online-voter-tools/.
“Why might a voter think they are registered when they are not?” Poston was asked. She gave three main reasons:
• the voter has not voted within the required four years after a general election,
• the voter’s name has changed, or
• the voter relocated (even within the county) since the last time they voted.
“We are responsible to keep an accurate record of all registered voters, including purging the rolls of those no longer eligible to vote in our county,” said Elections Clerk Cherry Grainger. “If someone moves to another state and when they register to vote, they include their previous address, the state elections official in the new location notifies us so that we can remove them from our rolls.”
“But if a county resident on our rolls dies out of the county, the resident remains on the rolls until their death is reported to us,” Poston added. “For instance, before I worked in elections here, my mother died while in Spokane. When I went to vote, I saw her name and called their attention to it.”
Poston said that as of this moment, there are no elections in the city of Bonners Ferry for the upcoming November election. “It used to be that they had their names on the ballot even if they were unopposed because candidates wanted to see their names,” she said, “but the legislature changed that, so since the mayor and city council are running unopposed, it will save our county quite a bit of money not having an election.”
Anyone who prefers not to vote in person, including students away at college, may vote absentee in our elections here as long as they have not changed their registration, she said.
“We recognize that it’s not easy to vote in school,” Poston said. “It’s very easy to vote absentee if you request the absentee ballots at the beginning of each year because they will be sent to you for all elections within that year.
Her best recommendation for all voters is “Don’t procrastinate.” Here, again, is the Idaho voter information site: voteidaho.gov/online-voter-tools/.