Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Today’s Idaho presidential primary, by the numbers…

Two

Number of parties participating – just the Republican and Constitution parties. The Idaho Democratic Party will make its presidential nominating decisions at county caucuses on March 22, where participants must sign a pledge saying they're members of the Democratic Party.
 

Three

Number of candidates on the Constitution Party presidential ballot in Idaho: Scott Copeland and Patrick Ockander of Texas, and J.R. Myers of Alaska. 

Eight

Time that polls open and close – they’re open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Thirteen

Number of candidates on the Republican Party ballot, even though some have dropped out of the race since they filed for the Idaho ballot. The choices, in alphabetical order: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Peter Messina, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Donald Trump. The ones still actively campaigning are Cruz, Kasich, Rubio and Trump.

32

Number of GOP delegates at stake in the Idaho primary. But no candidate will get any delegates unless that candidate gets at least 20 percent of the vote. And if any candidate gets more than 50 percent, it’ll turn into a winner-take-all: That candidate gets all 32 delegates.

2,265

Number of Idaho voters registered as members of the Constitution Party of Idaho

298,211

Number of Idaho voters registered as members of the Idaho Republican Party

364,355

Number of Idaho voters registered as unaffiliated with any party

740,041

Number of Idaho voters potentially eligible to vote in the primary on Tuesday – but only if they choose to register at the polls as member of the Republican or Constitution party. That figure includes all Idaho registered voters, including the 70,549 registered as Democrats and the 4,661 registered members of the Libertarian Party. If they register as Republicans or Constitution Party members at the polls, that becomes their new party registration; it’ll be a matter of public record. And the overall number could actually be higher, because Idaho’s same-day registration law allows any citizen – even one who’s never registered to vote – to register at the polls and vote on the spot. Voters who don’t choose to affiliate with the GOP or Constitution Party could still cast ballots on nonpartisan school levies in some districts, including Lakeland and Kellogg.

25.3 percent

Percentage of Idaho’s registered voters who voted in the state’s last presidential primary, which was in 2008. In 2012, Idaho had no presidential primary, as both the Republican and Democratic parties used caucuses to make their presidential nominee selections.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

Follow Betsy online: