Idaho Senate panel kills new limit on early voting dates

BOISE – House-passed legislation to limit early voting in Idaho was defeated Wednesday in a Senate committee.

Senate Minority Leader Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum, declared, “This is a voter suppression bill.”

Rep. Dustin Manwaring, R-Pocatello, the bill’s author, told the committee the bill would make early voting consistent among Idaho counties by limiting it to the period from three weeks before the election to one week before.

Some counties now choose to offer early voting as much as seven weeks before Election Day.

Manwaring said that makes things difficult for candidates who run in legislative districts that take in more than one county.

The bill had earlier passed the House on a 45-24 vote. It was opposed by the Idaho Association of Counties.