Shorter Voting Hours Endorsed

Legislation giving over 170 Idaho cities the option of shortening voting hours has been endorsed by the Senate State Affairs Committee.

The proposal was unanimously approved on Monday and will be the first bill to come to a vote in the Senate this session.

Offered by city clerks and finance officers and endorsed by the Association of Idaho Cities, the legislation would allow cities with populations under 10,000 to shorten voting hours from the current requirement of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

It was called a common sense measure because it would eliminate the need for small communities to maintain polling personnel even after every one has voted. City councils would be required to advertise new polling hours if they adopted them.