Early votes fueled a sizable turnout
BOISE – A dramatic increase in early voting fueled record turnout for Idaho’s Nov. 2 general election, and Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said on Wednesday that trend could eventually change the face of future campaigns.
The State Board of Canvassers approved the results of the election, finalizing the Republican Party’s landslide victories for President Bush, U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo and U.S. Reps. Butch Otter and Michael Simpson and the GOP’s significant gains in the Legislature.
The total vote count was 612,786, more than 96,000 higher than the old record set four years ago. Turnout was just under 76.8 percent, the second highest behind 1992’s 80.5 percent.
Ysursa said turnout was great considering that none of Idaho’s federal races were competitive and only a handful of legislative and local races fell into that category.
“Obviously, the presidential race was really the catalyst for this turnout,” Ysursa said. “The clerks actually did run low on ballots in some counties and they had to make copies.”
The official canvass was even higher than election night estimates, which put the total vote at only about 608,000.
Bush lost only Blaine County to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry in running up the third highest percentage for a presidential candidate in state history – 68.4 percent. Crapo, Otter and Simpson swept every county against their competitors.
The turnout surge was fueled by a significant jump in the number of early voters. More than 97,000 people voted ahead of Election Day.
That was nearly 16 percent of the total vote and five percentage points higher than in 2000.
“The polls were open in essence in Idaho the first week of October,” Ysursa said.
“I’m sure it does change the way campaigns operate.”
He said candidates will have to consider pushing key elements of their campaigns ahead to have an effect on those early voters.
“It’s a trend that’s going to continue,” he said. “I would look for that percentage to go up.”
Offering some counterbalance were those who finally decided in the final month to vote – taking advantage of Idaho’s election-day registration.
That number approached 118,000 this month, or 19 percent of the total vote.
It was a 41 percent increase in election-day registration from 2000 and 72 percent higher than in 1996, the first presidential election where election-day registration was authorized.