State official unwinds on the air
BOISE – The days after an election are among the busiest in the Idaho secretary of state’s office.
Ballots need to be certified, postelection campaign finance reports have to be filed, lobbyists have to be registered before the legislative session begins.
“There’s plenty going on,” said Secretary of State Ben Ysursa.
Friday was the deadline for counties to canvass their ballots, and the state has until Wednesday to check all the numbers.
So where was Ysursa Friday night?
He was under the Friday night lights at the Bishop Kelly-Caldwell football game, of course.
He and his cousin, BK history teacher David Skinner, call every BK game on KFXD AM-630, and have for a decade.
Sitting above the parents and alumni (the students are in the rowdy section down by the goal line), Ysursa and Skinner provide the play-by-play, crack each other up and unabashedly root for the home team. They’re both grads, after all.
“I don’t like this,” Ysursa confided to the listening audience just before Caldwell took the lead in the second quarter.
That’s a listening audience that Skinner estimated at two people just before the game started. Small, but loyal. At the ticket counter, one woman said she listens to every game.
Along with stats guy Dennis Kirk – his “Kirk-ulator” – and a scratch pad ready to crunch numbers, Ysursa and Skinner wave to just about everyone who walks by, joke with half of them and graciously accept hot chocolate and candy from well-wishers.
Through a tense first half Friday, Ysursa munched on Milk Duds brought by fellow early BK grad Barry “Spud” Zamzow.
“Chorizos next week at the state championship,” Spud promised, confident despite a first half 12-7 Caldwell lead.
In real life, Ysursa is one of Idaho’s top state officials. He spent about 25 years as Pete Cenarrusa’s deputy, and won an easy statewide election two years ago to replace him.
Even the Democrats backed out of the race to give him the nod.
By 3 p.m. Wednesday, Ysursa, state Controller Keith Johnson and Treasurer Ron Crane need all the election info from around the state. That’s when the three meet as the Board of Canvassers to finalize the results. And that’s not all that’s happening.
“There are a ton of questions coming in,” Ysursa said.
There could be a recount in the Bonner County sheriff’s race and there almost certainly will be one in a Boise Bench legislative race — Republican Kathie Garrett beat Democrat Sean Spence by just nine votes.
Plus, the state makes some changes after every election, and Ysursa expects this year won’t be any different.
“We’ll take some breaths and look for suggestions for the next one,” he said. “Elections never stop. There’s one every year.”
In the midst of all this, though, his mind does stray occasionally to the black and gold, especially in a season like this one, with the Knights favored to win their division’s state championship.
BK football is Ysursa’s “R-and-R,” he said.