Thanks for the compliments on the elections. My staff and poll workers did a great job and certainly deserve most of the credit. Now here's some interesting tidbits for all the political trivia buffs that demonstrates the intensity of the race for President. For various reason people do not always vote in every race on the ballot. These are referred to in the media as under votes. As an example, in the Otter/Preston congressional race, out of 55,704 ballots cast 3,991 voters (7.2%) chose not to vote on that race. In the race with Senator Crapo and a write-in candidate the total of non-voters was not surprisingly even greater at 10,117 under votes (18%). In the two uncontested commissioner races both had over 14,000 (25%) under votes.

But in the race for president, out of 55,704 ballots cast, only 156 voters chose not to vote for any of the presidential candidates for an astoundingly low under vote rate of .28%. The presidential race definitely drove this election and turn-out.

Dan English
Kootenai County clerk

p.s. The local option sales tax generated 3,252 (5.8%) under votes. I guess that implies the voters had more interest in that issue vs. their congressional race?

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