Huckleberries Thursday:

If you hold an election and only 5.68 percent show up, does it still count? Seems so. Despite the lousy turnout in Kootenai County on Tuesday, candidates were still elected to seats for highway, school, water, library and hospital districts.

County Clerk Jim Brannon and Deputy Clerk Jennifer Locke called Huckleberries throughout the day to report on election “color” and the dismal turnout.

Father Roger LaChance, the retiring padre at St. Pius X Catholic Church of Coeur d’Alene, for example, was the first person to vote at one of the two polling places in his church – at 9:38 a.m. The polls opened 98 minutes earlier. An hour later, Alison McArthur of the Post Falls Senior Center reported that no one had voted at the center’s two polling places. At about 6 p.m. Nancy White of Coeur d’Alene was about to jump in her jammies after a trying day in which she battled a yellowjacket trapped in her car. Then, she remembered the election, jumped back in the car, and became the 33rd voter in her precinct.

At 5:45 p.m., almost 10 hours after the polls opened, I was only the 17th person to vote at Coeur d’Alene’s Precinct 52. The two races on my ballot? One seat on the Lakes Highway District and two seats on the hospital board. Hardly show stoppers. But important. Only 26 of 701 eligible voters in my precinct performed their civic duty – or 3.71 percent.

Washington and Oregon have it right. Idaho needs vote-by-mail, too/DFO. More here.

Question: Would you prefer to vote-by-mail?

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