BOISE, Idaho — County clerks across Idaho are starting to see Idaho mail-in ballots return to their office. Now starts the heavy lifting of beginning to process them. Idaho clerks have extra time this election cycle thanks to a law passed during the special legislative session.
Senate Bill 1001 allows clerks like Phil McGrane in Ada County to start processing ballots seven days in advance of the election, but ballots won't be counted until election day. The legislature also had the foresight for skeptics of the process who may worry that opening ballots early could lead to fraud.
"There was an amendment during the legislative process, and the amendment was to add security cameras monitoring all of that. So once we start opening absentees and start the scanning of them there needs to be cameras that both stream and record what's going on so while our office or any of our workers are handling ballots the public has the opportunity to see that," McGrane said.
In Ada County, those cameras are already up and running, people can watch the ballots 24 hours a day through their live stream.
"I know there has been a lot of conversations among clerks throughout the state on how to make these upgrades quickly in advance of the end of the election, so we are doing that. We are actually scheduled to have additional cameras added later this week," McGrane said.
Livestreaming the election process is not new to Ada County. They began the practice in 2010 ahead of a contentious recount effort. The technology set to be installed will simply expand capabilities.
RELATED: Voting by mail in Idaho: How to properly fill out absentee ballots and make sure your vote counts
Counties choosing to do all the work on Election Day, instead of seven days in advance, are not required to live stream the process. In Boise County for example, Clerk Mary Prisco tells KTVB that for a number of reasons they will handle all absentee ballots on election day like in years past.
Counties that will be opening before election day and live streaming got special federal funds for the technology.
"We actually got elections specific money through the secretary of state to address both security, including cybersecurity which is something we are watching closely, but also to address the COVID changes we have been making," McGrane said.
Another aspect of election security is the integrity of ballot drop boxes. Availability of those is specific to each county, but in Idaho's most populated county, McGrane says they are well protected.
"All of the boxes are under camera surveillance so we can see what's going on and be able to look back in case anything happens. Interestingly enough too we've added fire suppression systems to all of them so in the event somebody is trying to tamper with something in some way we have them protected," McGrane said.
Those Ada County boxes are already being well utilized by voters.
"The very first ballots hit mailboxes on Friday last week and on Saturday our drop box out front was full," McGrane said.
Returns of absentee ballots through the mail is also at an impressive rate.
"We received about 15,000 ballots in the mail yesterday, one days mailing. Which is larger than most counties throughout the state of Idaho. This election is in full force as we speak," McGrane said.
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