In these two towns, voting twice is encouraged

About 250 voters in Dalton Gardens and Hayden Lake will have to make two trips to the polls Nov. 8 because of a kink in the election system.

Kootenai County election officials are trying to prepare voters for the inconvenience and recommend that they vote absentee if they don’t want to drive to two separate polling locations.

“These people aren’t happy when this happens,” said Deedie Beard, election supervisor. “We feel bad for the voters.”

The problem occurs when, like this year, there is both a city election and a county election on the same day. In addition to the various elections Nov. 8 for city council and mayoral positions, Kootenai County is asking voters to approve a $50 million jail expansion. The money would come from the half-cent local option sales tax that voters approved in 2000.

In the larger towns that contract with the county to run their elections, such as Coeur d’Alene and Post Falls, voters can get both a city ballot and county ballot at the same polling location.

But in Dalton Gardens and Hayden Lake, smaller towns that don’t contract with the county, that’s not the case.

In Hayden Lake, about 100 voters must cast county ballots at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church on Maple instead of at the Hayden Lake City Hall.

Dalton Gardens residents vote for their city council members at City Hall. But the 146 residents who live in a different county precinct must cast county ballots at the fire station next door to Dalton Gardens City Hall or miles away at the Scottish Rite Temple on Strahorn Road. A voter’s address determines his or her precinct.

Beard said it upsets voters when they see some people voting for the county measure at city hall but are told they must either go to the fire station or temple to cast their own county ballots.

Dalton Gardens City Clerk Marcia Wingfield said the situation upset a lot of voters when the same scenario occurred in the 2003 election.

“If it’s a bad day weather-wise, people hate the idea of having to get back in their car and go somewhere else to vote,” Wingfield said. “Or if people are running in after work, it really creates an issue.”

Next week the county will send the affected voters a letter explaining the situation and providing them a form to request an absentee ballot for the county election. Beard said that should give people adequate warning and an option so they don’t have to go to two sites.

If people want to vote absentee in the city election as well, they must request a separate absentee ballot form from their city hall.

She said the county may consider changing the precinct boundaries to better match the city limits in Dalton Gardens and Hayden Lake. But, she said, it’s hard to keep up with how quickly city boundaries change with all the growth.

“We can’t change every time they do,” Beard said.

Dalton Gardens has two council seats open. Councilman Jim Howard along with former mayor and former councilman Ron Koontz and planning and zoning Chairman Joe Myers are running for those positions.

In a rarity, the entire Hayden Lake council and the mayor are up for re-election but there are no challengers.