Idaho Bills

Amends existing law to revise provisions regarding early voting.

The purpose of this legislation is to modify the requirements for counties electing to conduct early voting. Thecurrentstatuteislimitedtocountiesthatcountballotsatacentrallocation. Thischange would also allow counties that use modern polling place based counters to also participate in early voting. Additionally, this legislation cleans up a reference to the official ballot stamp to reflect the current legislation for official election ballot identification.

Amends existing law to revise a certain application deadline.

Currently voters may request an absentee ballot to be mailed to them up to 5:00 pm on the sixth day preceding an election. Recently, the United States Post Office has restructured its postal services in Pocatello, and is expected to make similar changes in Boise in the coming years. These changes do not allow for enough time for the county clerks to mail the ballot to the voter, for the voter to vote, and for the voter to mail the ballot back to the elections office in time to be counted. In short, the six days allowed by statute are insufficient. This legislation increases the current 6 days to 11 days to allow for adequate mailing time.