After more than three hours of discussion and debate, challenges to three counties’ delegations to this year’s Idaho GOP state convention – Madison, Bannock and Bonneville – all were voted down in the credentials committee, meaning those delegations can be seated for business. However, there still could be challenges on the floor of the convention this afternoon, and Idaho Falls attorney Bryan Smith, Region 7 chairman for the party, suggested he likely will give that a try.

Smith and state Rep. Ron Nate, R-Rexburg, submitted a lengthy document questioning the Madison County delegate selection process, in which Nate was elected as an alternate, but not as a delegate; they request that the entire Madison County delegation be denied credentials, contending rules requiring each candidate for delegate to be given time to speak weren’t followed. “The procedural error in Madison County is not a minor error, but a substantial error requiring corrective action,” Smith wrote in his petition.

In Bonneville County, the protest contended that the use of a texting service for voting on delegates violated secret ballot rules. In Bannock County, two delegates and an alternate were challenged.