UI polling location sees Election Day difficulty
MOSCOW, Idaho – University of Idaho students and other Moscow residents had to wait in line for hours during Election Day to cast their vote as poll workers were “overwhelmed” by the large number of voters, according to the Latah County auditor.
A UI student said many would-be voters gave up and went home before they filled their ballots.
The UI Student Recreation Center was a Nov. 5 polling location for five precincts in Moscow. One of those precincts, the 8th precinct, encompasses the UI dorms and some of Greek Row.
Residents are allowed to register to vote on Election Day in Idaho, and the SRC drew more new voters than the county was prepared for, Latah County Auditor Julie Fry said.
“With 1,077 new voters that day, we were just really completely overwhelmed at the SRC,” Fry said.
The entire county drew a record number of 3,565 same-day voter registrations, she said.
Fry said previous elections she has presided over paled in comparison to this fall’s election in terms of voter turnout. In the 2020 general election, only 455 people voted in the 8th precinct, she said.
“This is my first big election and we definitely learned a lot during this election,” she said.
Fry and UI student Anya Zuercher confirmed that the Student Rec Center ran out of voter registration forms, which meant county workers had to deliver new forms to the SRC three times during the course of the day.
“That’s ridiculous,” Zuercher said. “They didn’t plan out right.”
Zuercher was at the SRC that day not only to cast her own vote, but as a volunteer helping transport people to the SRC and making sure pedestrians were able to cross the street safely.
Fry said her staff had to deploy every piece of election equipment it had to keep up with the large number of voters.
Zuercher said people waited in lines for as long as seven hours.
Some potential voters grew so frustrated that they left without casting their ballot.
“I don’t know where someone went wrong, but something went wrong,” she said.