SoS Ysursa (left) and Rep. Rusche (right)
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Legislation introduced by Representative and Minority Leader John Rusche jeopardizes the integrity of Idaho’s elections. Rusche’s bill, House Bill 415, provides an option for county commissioners to adopt a vote-by-mail election system in their county that would apply to all primary, general, and special elections. One of the obvious dangers in Rusche’s legislation is that it would allow county clerks to open sealed ballots five days before election day.
Idaho law presently requires the ballots to remain secret until the polls close on election day. Then the absentee ballot envelopes can be opened, and the ballots can be removed, unfolded, and counted.
In apparent defiance of Idaho law, Secretary of State Ben Ysursa has in past elections authorized county clerks to violate the law, open absentee ballots, unfold them, but not count them until after the polls close on election day. Why? The reason given was so the returned absentee ballots could be flattened out and run more easily through the tabulator machinery.
Simply put, Ysursa was pandering to some county clerks who put their comfort and convenience ahead of election integrity. Those clerks’ reasoning was that there would be fewer tabulator machine malfunctions during vote counting if the folded absentee ballots were unfolded, backfolded, and flattened in a box with a weighted lid hours or days before counting.
Apparently Ysursa (and Rusche) are unconcerned that opening ballots days before the election might tempt a dishonest election worker to reveal an “unofficial” tabulation of votes to people who might have the ability to use that information and the interim time to manipulate the election’s outcome.
Both Ysursa and Rusche are apparently willing to sacrifice Idaho’s election integrity for convenience. Did they learn nothing from Coeur d’Alene’s 2009 City election contest lawsuit?
Please contact your state Representative and urge them to vote against House Bill 415. Tell them that election integrity is more important than the convenience of county workers. Tell them that a reasonable delay in reporting election results is preferable to having an election contested in the courts. And please tell them to remind Secretary of State Ben Ysursa that it is his office’s job to carry out the laws as passed by the Legislature. He does not have the authority to unilaterally amend election law.
House Bill No 415, 34-2605, Section 2, 50-405 (2)contains a paragraph that says thie “city clerk shall conduct all primary, special and general elections entirely by a vote by mail system.”
I am not an attorney, but the above section alarms me, that the city will hold the election should the county commissioners approve a vote by mail system. Can anyone explain it to me?
Comment by LTR — January 28, 2012 @ 3:59 pm
LTR,
You have astutely pointed out yet another reason why this legislation is dangerous and must be rejected.
Rusche wants to essentially amend the election laws that were passed in 2009 and went into effect on January 1, 2011, and to return the control over city elections to the cities. In other words, the City of Coeur d’Alene doesn’t want an honest county clerk administering the City’s election impartially and according to law.
This goes back, at least in part, to something Cliff Hayes did to make elections in Kootenai County more honest. He shut down satellite voting locations. If there was anyone at any of the city halls who might have been inclined to stuff the ballot box with voting materials left unsecured overnight at a city hall, that put the kibosh on it. And who has screamed the loudest about losing their satellite voting at city hall? Coeur d’Alene, and specifically Councilman Mike Kennedy.
Comment by Bill — January 28, 2012 @ 5:01 pm
I am sure the mayor and remaining incumbents would like to see this pass as they watch their house of cards FINALLY starts to fall.
Comment by concerned citizen — January 29, 2012 @ 7:41 am
starts — I need more coffee. lol
Comment by concerned citizen — January 29, 2012 @ 7:42 am
BAU. ‘They’ go fix it internally with new laws to make it okay which in turn patches the boo boos making those big gashes, monor scrapes. This is just recon …
Comment by Stebbijo — January 29, 2012 @ 12:02 pm