Absentees Set Record In Primary Kootenai County Hopes It’S A Sign Election Will Draw High Turnout

Kootenai County has already set a record for absentee voter turnout, with a week remaining before the primary election.

Kootenai County Clerk Dan English said 978 people had voted as of Friday in a primary featuring several hotly contested local, state and federal races.

“We will be well over 1,000 absentee voters,” English said Monday. “We hope it’s an indicator of a higher turnout.”

Voters can vote absentee until 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 22.

The voter registration deadline has passed, but residents can still vote by showing picture identification and proof that they have resided in the county for the past 30 days.

This year’s turnout has surpassed the 773 absentee ballots cast in last May’s special election, the 660 absentee ballots cast in the 1998 primary election and the 720 votes cast in the 1996 presidential primary.

“We don’t yet know the significance of the turnout,” English said. “We don’t know if people are discovering the convenience of absentee voting or if we are going to have a record turnout.”

One thing is certain - counting the votes on election night will be a chore.

That’s because the ballot includes 13 write-in candidates running for precinct representatives for the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.

Deedie Beard, the county’s election supervisor, said the last time this many write-in candidates were on the ballot, volunteers were still counting ballots the next day.

The county has an automated counting system. However, when a voter fills in an oval for a write-in candidate, the machine stops and volunteers have to remove the ballot to verify the vote, English said.

“With a large election like this, it’s going to take some time. We want to get it out as bad as anybody,” he said. Then he quipped, “Our real goal is to be done before the bars close.”