Senators prepare to act like a court, take up contest of District 29 election results
Terms like motion, order, affidavit, telephonic hearing and the like were being tossed around in the Senate State Affairs Committee this morning as the panel prepares to consider a contest of the Senate election in District 29; the senators are essentially acting as a court in the matter. “The Senate has ultimate discretion on this,” Deputy Attorney General Brian Kane told the committee this morning. “This really is the Senate’s show. This is your process; this derives from the state Constitution.”
The committee will hold a hearing on Monday on the contest of the election, in which challenger Tom Katsilometes is claiming a series of errors in vote counting, tabulation and sunshine law compliance. New Sen. Mark Nye, D-Pocatello, formerly a state representative from the same district, won the race with 48.1 percent of the vote in November; Katsilometes got 44.9 percent and independent Sierra “Idaho Lorax” Carta took 7 percent.
Today, the panel received briefings from Kane and from Legislative Services Director Eric Milstead, and each member was provided with a thumb drive containing the voluminous documents in the case. Already, a telephonic hearing was held yesterday involving a motion with regard to striking part of an exhibit; Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill and State Affairs Chairman Jeff Siddoway were involved in the hearing along with the parties on both sides.
“Senators, there are a few of us, and especially Sen. Hill and Sen. Davis, that have really been working hard on this, and Eric and Brian,” Siddoway told the committee. “I guess if I were going to give you a little bit of advice, we need to concentrate on the charges, the three charges, and we need to see what the burden of proof is, if it’s there. We need to figure that out in our own minds. And we need to see if the remedies that are being asked for fit, if they don’t fit, and try to, I guess, run that to ground with the documents that we have available. But there is a lot of information here.”
Kane told the committee that the Senate could confirm the result of the election or annul the result of the election. If it determined the election to be tied, it could “decide it by lot of the Senate’s choosing,” such as drawing for the high card or choosing the short straw. It could declare the election void, declare the office vacant and have it filled under procedures provided in law, or order a new election.
“You all have a lot of discretion in this matter,” Kane told the senators.
