BOISE, Idaho — You can call it a swing dance with the Democrats running for the House and Senate in District 11 as they are doing a bit of a dance.
Both democratic candidates, Toni Ferro, running for Senator, and Anthony Porto, running for the House, decided to switch positions on the general ballot by dropping out and refining the now-vacant position.
They did it under the guidance of the Security of State, which gave them the green light. However, the office realized the mistake and revered the change.
Initially, Porto said that because Ferro was a well-known candidate, they wondered if they could flip seats.
"After the Primary, a few of us were talking about changing up the match ups a little bit," said Ferro. "I thought initially that it wasn't legal probably, that it wasn't really the kind of thing that we could do but it was Anthony's job to go find out and so he checked with the Secretary of States Office repeatedly and they just kept saying it's fine, it's fine."
"The Secretary of State messed up and gave us bad legal advice," said Porto."We had all the legal channels approved notarized documents. Their legal team approved all of that."
Emails KTVB received from GOP District 11 Chairman Greg Stuck confirmed this.
An email to Anthony from the Elections Director states, "After chatting with Secretary of State Phil McGrane, we believe that you can withdraw and change seats."
"It was done over with in six weeks," said Porto.
"We went into the office and had everything notarized and they said go for it, so we did," said Ferro.
Well, then came an email a few weeks later from Secretary of State Phil McGrane.
It stated, "After reviewing all the circumstance, Idaho Code 34-717(2) clearly states that once an individual withdraws from a race, only when a vacancy occurs due to the death of a candidate, may that individual be appointed to fill a vacancy."
It continues to say that their office provided inaccurate guidance regarding the appointment process, and to correct it; their office will reverse the appointments and withdrawals and restore candidacy.
They apologized and said they were thankful this error came to light before submitting names for the ballot and that they would review it more thoroughly in the future.
"It's still business as usual with we're on the ballot for District 11," said Porto. "The issues are the same, the constituents are the same."
When we called McGrane's office, they agreed and said they made a mistake, but GOP District 11 Chairman, Greg Stuck, said this is not right.
He sent a letter to McGrane that said, "Since the withdrawals were legal, but the appointments were not, the only legal course of action is to remove them from the ballot."
He said the election oversight is the job of the Secretary of State and that McGrane quote, "have failed the people of Idaho."
He said he asked that their names be removed from the ballot and that McGrane immediately resigns.
"I don't think there is enough harm to anyone as long as the voters are still able to have a choice and have good options and good choices and I don't think that the Secretary of State's Office has done anything irreparable, or worthy of a resignation," said Ferro.