CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — Long lines on election day can happen, the good news is people are voting. Not so good, the waiting. Canyon County has worked to make a major change to prevent lines on Nov. 7.
“Yeah, for sure. We were able to secure 37 polling locations for this election out of 44 precincts,” said Canyon County Spokesperson Joe Decker
Decker said the move to 37 polling locations is certainly a change this election season.
“I think a lot of people remember, too, maybe the November election during the pandemic when we only had 13 polling places open," Decker said. "So going from 13 to 37, it's a significant increase. In May of last year, we had 21. In November of last year, we had 27. So we're up even ten over last year's November election.”
Community feedback certainly helped the change, other factors helped as well.
“We're always looking to expand polling locations, and I think this year we just had more bites than we usually have had. And we've got a better relationship through one of our commissioners worked with some of the school districts. It allowed us back in in the past. They didn't really like us there, but they've decided to allow us back in. So that really helps,” Decker said.
Another thing that needs to increase, is poll workers. The scale of it all translates to other changes.
“We were hoping to have about 380. We have close to 300. So we're pretty staffed up,” Decker said. “We're not going to have curbside voting at all our polling locations where in the past we did have curbside voting in all our polling locations. But on the other hand, all 37 of our polling locations are ADA compliant. And sometimes that hasn't always been the case, which is part of the reason we do that curbside vote,” Decker said.
So, the big question is, will lines be shorter?
“We certainly hope so," Decker said. "We've had the two weeks early voting that we've really been pushing. Same with the absentees. So the more people to vote early, the more absentees we get, the more lines, the smaller the lines will be.”
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