Sunday’s Coeur d’Alene Press ran a story headlined Vote here, only. The story reported that newly-inaugurated Kootenai County Clerk Cliff Hayes had decided to not provide satellite polling places for absentee, in-person voting. For residents of Coeur d’Alene (and Canada), that means voters will no longer be able to cast an absentee in-person ballot at Coeur d’Alene City Hall. Rather, they will have to drive for about 6 minutes over the 1.9 miles to get to the County Elections Office at 3rd and Locust.
Predictably, the usual suspects were indignant! Councilman Mike Kennedy huffed and puffed at the August 16 Council meeting that the County Clerk was “depressing the [voter] turnout” and “removing a service that had served the citizens well for a long time. ” According to the news/views/skews paper article, Kennedy and Coeur d’Alene City Clerk Susan Weathers said this makes it harder for people to vote.
There’s more to the story within the Press story, however. (more…)