COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Idaho election officials are gearing up for Election Day, but Idaho’s Secretary of State says it may take some time to release complete election results because of a potential record voter turnout.
Secretary of State Phil McGrane expects around 35% of votes to be cast early or by absentee ballots. He says around 75% of the total votes in this election are to be cast on Election Day, which means results will take until Wednesday morning to be complete.
McGrane said as long as early voting and absentee trends continue, there is expected to be record-breaking voter numbers and percentage of voter turnout. He also said this year is the first year the number of early voters could surpass the number of absentee votes statewide.
“On our absentee tracker, you can see a map and you can see by county, by precinct, by legislative district where turnout is the highest. I’m sure some of that will be fed by the competitive races, but overall it just seems to be elevated and we’re seeing that nationwide,” McGrane said.
But for those watching the early results on Election Day, it will take more time for Kootenai County to tally results, especially for in-person voting.
“In Kootenai County, all of the ballots come back to the elections office and are processed in their elections office. Online, they have video. You can watch them working throughout the night but Kootenai County is the largest county that’s going to take time,” McGrane said.
McGrane said early results on Election day will be released at 8 p.m. Pacific Time. He expects most of the ballots counted for the early results to be from absentee ballots and early voting.
“I do anticipate it will take us well into Wednesday morning for us to have any complete results,” he said. “I think in particular, I know those statewide issues or legislative races that are close that have multiple counties in them.”
So far, over 80% of absentee ballots requested in Kootenai County have already been returned. Anyone with an absentee ballot can still drop it off at their local elections office by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
Idaho law mandates that once election officials start counting ballots, they can’t stop until all of them are counted.
COPYRIGHT 2024 BY KXLY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.