Senate Ed kills both bills to change school board elections
Sen. Mary Souza’s bill to change school board elections so that trustees still would run from established zones, but voters district-wide would vote on all the positions, went down to defeat in the Senate Education Committee this afternoon. That then doomed a companion bill, to move school board elections from May of odd years to November of even years, the same time as major partisan elections including president, governor and legislative seats.
The bill, SB 1308, was opposed by the Idaho School Boards Association and the Idaho Association of School Administrators, but supported by county clerks, who said it’d make administration of school board elections simpler and less prone to error. The clerks made clear, however, that they wouldn’t support the companion bill moving the date without the change in zone voting.
Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise, moved to hold the bill in committee; her motion was seconded by Sen. Janie Ward-Engelking, though Sen. Kelly Anthon, R-Burley, also tried to second it. Anthon said his district doesn’t support the change, and it woudn’t work for the large school districts there that were formed by consolidating smaller districts – with the promise that they’d still have their own voting districts within the new larger district. Sen. Lori Den Hartog, R-Meridian, offered a substitute motion to send the bill to the Senate’s 14th Order for amendments, but it failed for lack of a second. Souza’s bill, SB 1308, was then killed on a lopsided voice vote, with just Den Hartog and Souza voting no.
Sen. Jim Rice, R-Caldwell, then pitched the voting-date change for school board elections, SB 1307. “You will get substantially higher voter participation than we currently have,” he said.
Chief Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst said the Secretary of State’s office wasn’t taking an official position on the bill, but the purpose of Idaho’s election consolidation law that passed in 2011 was to “make sure people went to the same place at the same time every year to vote.” The May election of odd-numbered years is when other districts also have their elections. “By taking school districts away from May of the odd-numbered year, that means you’re going to have even less people show up to vote for the hospital board elections, highway districts, library districts and the auditorium districts,” he said. “If that’s your wish then that’s fine, but the purpose for election consolidation initially was basically to increase voter turnout for everybody.” He said he also wouldn’t support putting all those districts onto the November even-year general election, which he said would be “an administrative nightmare” and a disservice to voters.
The Idaho School Boards Association also opposed SB 1307. “Our main concern here is moving a non-partisan election onto a partisan ballot,” ISBA chief Karen Echeverria told the committee.
The committee killed SB 1307 on another lopsided voice vote, with just Souza supporting it. Both bills were co-sponsored by Souza, Rice, and Rep. Greg Chaney, R-Caldwell.
