Idaho's 2026 Session: Every Elections Bill That Passed

New felony crimes for illegal voting, election interference, and vote-tally tampering

Repeals and rewrites Idaho's illegal-voting statute, making illegal voting, interference with an election, and tampering with voting machines or vote-tally systems felonies.

House 68–0 · Senate 35–0

New safeguards for voters using an affidavit instead of photo ID

Adds new requirements to the voter-affidavit process — more information from the voter and additional verification by poll workers and the county — before a ballot is issued to someone voting without personal identification.

Senate 33–0 · House 67–0

Candidate-name rotation extended to more ballots

Revises how the Secretary of State rotates candidate name order on ballots — extends the rotation requirement (previously tied to a 25,000-registered-voter threshold) uniformly across federal, state, county, and local races.

House 68–1 · Senate 34–0

Simplified ballot layout for constitutional amendments

Removes a requirement that a page break separate the candidate ballot from a constitutional amendment or ballot issue, giving county clerks more layout flexibility for general-election ballots.

House 66–2 · Senate 34–0

Election-deadline cleanup for soil and water conservation districts

Closes three gaps left over from 2025 legislation that standardized county clerks' election dates and deadlines — soil and water conservation districts, sparsely populated precincts, and canvassing timelines were inadvertently missed.

House 69–0 · Senate 34–0

New physical-residency requirement for legislative candidates

Requires House and Senate candidates to be registered electors for a full year before the general election and to physically live in their declared district for at least that period — the session's most contested elections vote, taking two House readings to pass. Effective January 2027, after this November's election.

House 42–26 (1st) / 38–28 (2nd) · Senate 20–14

Local candidate filings move to the county clerk

Changes where local candidates file their declaration of candidacy — from the clerk of the political subdivision to the county clerk — so filings flow through one office instead of many small local ones.

Senate 35–0 · House 64–6

No in-person classes in school buildings used as polling places

Bars in-person student instruction in the specific school district buildings designated as polling locations on election day, for student-safety reasons. Other buildings in the same district are unaffected. Effective 2028.

House 54–14 · Senate 30–4