Kootenai County Clerk Cliff Hayes has issued a press release announcing some interim and approximate results of the first day’s verification process of the Coeur d’Alene election recall petitions.
Rather than focusing on the preliminary first-day percentages, we’d like to encourage all electors to pay particular attention to the principal reason for rejection thus far: Electors signed the recall petitions who have a Coeur d’Alene mailing address but do not reside inside the City of Coeur d’Alene.
The mailing address is a US Postal Service designation for purposes of mail distribution. Many people who live outside the city limits and are therefore ineligible to vote as city residents have a Coeur d’Alene mailing address and receive mail delivery from the Coeur d’Alene post office. Your eligibility to vote in a city election is determined by where you actually reside, not by the post office that sorts and delivers your mail. For example, John Doe may live outside the city limits on Mica Bay Road and receive mail addressed to John Doe, 1234 Mica Bay Road, Coeur d’Alene, ID 83814. Because John Doe does not live in the city limits, he is not eligible to vote in Coeur d’Alene city elections.
There is at least one and probably more small islands of County area surrounded by City of Coeur d’Alene. Anyone residing in one of those County islands is not a City resident and therefore not eligible to vote in City elections.
Likewise, there are boundary areas where one side of the street is County and one side is City. Thus, the people who live on the City side will be eligible to vote in City elections but their neighbor across the street in the County will not.
The bottom line is that it is the individual voter’s responsibility to know in exactly which elections he is eligible to vote and participate in other election-related activities (e.g., signing recall petitions). The Kootenai County Clerk will help make that determination. If voting is important to you, and we hope it is, please be sure you know in which elections you are eligible to vote!
Well, I am quite certain my signature will not be thrown out,then. It is also the government’s responsibility to get
the information correct if they are going to update their data bases accordingly. Pesky little details can at times
make a very big difference. When, I renewed my driver’s license, I did inform and update the assessors office – after that, I don’t
I don’t have a clue what they did, but the SOS data base is not correct where at one time it was and I don’t know how
they arrived at their conclusion as to where I actually lived. Too bad, that don’t have me on some private island, I might
hold them to it! 🙂
Comment by Stebbijo — June 13, 2012 @ 8:59 am
Stebbijo,
Regardless of which agency has the responsibility, I strongly urge you to take a drive to the Elections Office and get it straightened out yourself. Assuming your driver’s license has your current and correct address, take it and a current utility bill that has your current and correct address on it. You may not need more than your driver’s license, but please go prepared. If your current voter registration card already has your current and correct address, that should assure your petition signature was counted. Still, it’s best to check. My guess is it will take fewer than 10 minutes and you’ll be done with it.
Comment by Bill — June 13, 2012 @ 10:58 am
Bill,
Thanks for the input, but seriously, I have lived in Idaho way too long to give these guys a copy of my utility bill. It is not going to happen. I voted in the last election with my new address (absent primary) and even tho, my old address was on the books, I had no problem. I showed my I.D.
Because, if I have to do all of this after all of the years I have lived in this god-forsaken state, I will give them a stool and UA sample with it so they can check that out, too.
I am not proving anything – they can tell me why it is messed up, then we will see what happens.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 13, 2012 @ 1:43 pm
Bill,
I called the elections office locally. The girls are working on it – very nice.
Goofy, assessor’s office does not have it right either – there is an issue with the old physical addresses before they changed it over to the new 911 addresses – so they are checking with the GIS people and matching it up. So, most likely I won’t have to send a stool or UA sample to prove who I am. 😉
Comment by Stebbijo — June 13, 2012 @ 2:01 pm
Stebbijo,
Glad to hear it.
Comment by Bill — June 13, 2012 @ 2:20 pm
Bill, yes, me too.
They called back and it’s getting fixed – learned a lot. The GIS people are kind of behind the scenes, nobody really thinks about them, but they are located in the county building. The election folks are also notating our voter registration card. The next thing is to verify that the 911 information is correct – the information originates at the city level from what I understand, so guess where my next call will be? Not looking forward to that, so I think I will save it for tomorrow.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 13, 2012 @ 2:37 pm
Also, since the elections board is aware of the situation, our signature will be counted.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 13, 2012 @ 2:43 pm
Stebbijo,
Thanks for working with them to get it fixed. The Elections Office needs to be made aware of citizen difficulties like that, because accurate, timely address information establishes residency which affects voter eligibility. You had a legitimate issue that others may have as well, but they may not have notified the Elections Office. By your action, you may have helped the County save quite a few headaches for a lot of other people.
See? Your extra effort made sure your signature was counted! Good job!
Comment by Bill — June 13, 2012 @ 2:45 pm
Bill,
Actually, I just like to find government screw ups. 🙂
I am glad it is getting fixed, however, there is one other issue.
How was it authorized to update my address even tho incorrectly entered via city information to the county – how is that legal – in this particular case, because I did not move? Through GIS?
Since the voter registration is the public record, I understand that GIS might decide to enter the cards into a data base. How is it that nothing was updated and I mean NOTHING but the SOS election registration database and that was done wrong? Still does not fit but there has been some progress, I will work on the rest later. Have to make sure 911 is right.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 13, 2012 @ 3:05 pm
Stebbijo,
I can’t begin to answer most of your questions, but my understanding is that the SecState voter registration base is updated based exclusively on information supplied by the respective county clerks.
Comment by Bill — June 13, 2012 @ 3:09 pm
… and that information is supplied by the city is how I understand it and the SOS gets their information from the county.If the city gets it wrong, everyone is wrong. But, the irony rests in the only agency information that was updated was voter registration on the SOS site and that was wrong.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 13, 2012 @ 4:49 pm
Update: The Saga of Stebbijo’s Address
My husband talked with Crystal to verify our 911 address. We had to place a scheduled 911 call to see if it worked. They have us at our original address so they have not updated the address either even though the addresses were supposed to be changed for 911 purposes. They have a separate system for administration and they had to manually enter us in so we would be part of the system, because there was no record of us.
Folks this is right smack dab in the middle of the city – walking distance to downtown to view the lovely art work.
The only people that update us are the alleged registration voter records via GIS thru the city and it’s wrong?
How does this happen?
14 million for a park aka Phase 1? Our tax dollars are not even working for an adequate 911 system.
We have been found, ‘they’ know where we are now – but this is really not funny.
The Mayor is more interested in a park than implementing a solid 911 system/Emergency Services and they send wrong GIS information. This is really very bad.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 13, 2012 @ 5:44 pm
Stebbijo,
You’re right — it’s not funny at all. A fundamental life-safety service paid for with your tax dollars and promised to you isn’t available to you. I’m sure the City will say, “Well, of course the County is responsible for the 9-1-1 system …” It simply doesn’t matter. You have been failed by your local governments on whom you relied to provide basic funded services.
Comment by Bill — June 13, 2012 @ 6:50 pm
Thank you for your understanding, Bill.
It is a bit unsettling because both my husband and I know at this very moment we do not have accurate 911 services because the city changed the street addresses and failed to provide accurate information. Yes, they might get here, but when seconds count, it might be too late.
I think I will send the city a bill and donate a rotten tomato to enhance a bucket of art.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 13, 2012 @ 7:53 pm
More Stebbijo address stuff:
So, I talked to the city and they explained it. The lady that drafted the ordinance is sending me the stuff so I can get a visual, she was very nice. No complaints. When the addresses were changed, the Fire Department came out and made sure everything was updated on their end as well.
So, where and when was the mistake made? The physical address was changed at least 2 years ago.
We think it was a data entry mistake at the GIS level. GIS says our 911 is correct, last night 911 confirmed it was not an updated address. But, maybe today it is right. The voter information at the Secretary of State’s level is wrong because when the new address was entered incorrectly it updated accordingly, based on the previous voter registration card. Any voter information or campaign literature never makes it to my correct address.
However, they are attempting to fix it, but the address I have never lived at is still there. I can vote twice now, I guess.
I give up.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 14, 2012 @ 11:47 am
Stebbijo,
You’re right — it’s strange. The SecState database has two addresses for you (one on “P” and one on “W”, and the same two for your husband. The county probably just added the correct one (whichever it is) and will verify the incorrect one is incorrect before deleting it.
Comment by Bill — June 14, 2012 @ 11:57 am
“I can vote twice now, I guess.” – Stebbijo, you must not have gotten the memo.
Dan English is no longer in charge of elections.
Comment by CDAShenanigans — June 14, 2012 @ 12:26 pm
The County Clerk does not run the elections, the GIS department does… and who gives these guys the right to update my voter registration card – under who’s authority?
At this point, the only solution is a new voter registration card with my/our signatures on it. Because now we have incorrect public records.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 14, 2012 @ 12:40 pm
CDAShenanigans
ROFLMAO! I just about spit my coffee out.
That sad part is it’s true.
Comment by concerned citizen — June 14, 2012 @ 2:41 pm
Or is that the GOOD part.
Comment by concerned citizen — June 14, 2012 @ 2:42 pm
@concerned citizen – I know what you are saying and I do not want to even think about it. And, it is true. 🙂
Comment by Stebbijo — June 14, 2012 @ 5:36 pm
Addtionally, the new addresses that were assigned to us do not reflect any search for sex offenders – they do not exist unless you know the old address to complete the lookup. What a system …and what a mess.
Comment by Stebbijo — June 14, 2012 @ 5:58 pm