Breaking news: Idaho has vote by mail – the same as Oregon and Washington. 

Of course, there’s one catch. Voters must take the initiative to request an absentee ballot. In Oregon and Washington, ballots are mailed to everybody with a driver’s license and a pulse.

Then, you know what happens? In primary elections, at least, a good number of voters apparently get their ballots in the mail and use them to line cat-litter boxes. Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney says Oregon’s turnout in the last primary was about 36 percent and Washington’s was 35 percent. Idaho’s turnout was a pitiful 30 percent, but not that much lower than the two neighboring states.

Forget about the prospects for a legislative solution in Idaho.

“I don’t believe that the 5-6 percent difference is enough to convince our Legislature that it is worth the added problems to go to a mail-ballot system,” Denney said/Chuck Malloy, Idaho Politics Weekly. More here.

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