IDAHO, USA — The Idaho House Floor held House Bill 205 (HB205) Tuesday for another legislative day. The bill has been on the floor since Feb. 27; it has not received a floor debate or vote.
The bill creates restrictions around who can qualify for an absentee ballot in Idaho elections. The bill allows absentee ballots for active military, people who are sick, people who are disabled, people in the hospital, people who cannot get to the polls on election day for work or college, those on a religious mission, and anyone in a second home outside of their home county on election day.
KTVB reported on House Bill 75 (HB75) in early February that aimed to restrict absentee ballots in a similar way. The bill did not receive support from the Ada County Clerk's office. HB205 is an amended version of HB75; they are both sponsored by Representative Joe Alfieri (R-Coeur d'Alene).
Secretary of State Phil McGrane testified against HB205 when the bill was in committee. Absentee ballots are secure with processes in place to catch potential fraud, McGrane told the committee.
A 500-strong grassroots organization called Election Integrity Idaho (EII) supports HB205. Absentee ballots are the easiest way to cheat in an election, according to EII.
"The mantra is, ‘easy to vote, hard to cheat.’ Right?" EII spokesperson Tim O'Donnell told KTVB. "I think Idaho is in pretty good shape compared to other states, but it's a pretty low bar. I think there are some things we can do to secure things. Absentee voting is absolutely the number one thing we can do to secure our elections here."
O'Donnell takes issue with anyone handling a ballot who is not the voter or an election poll worker. For that reason, he is less concerned about absentee ballot droboxes where the ballots are picked up directly by county clerk staff. However, mail-in ballots are a larger problem from EII.
"When you drop it in the post office, we have no visibility of those ballots at those points," O'Donnell said. "The postal service is a union that endorsed Joe Biden for President. Anybody who is Republican who wants to hand their ballot over to partisan organization, I don't think that's wise."
Idaho County Clerk Kathy Ackerman does not share that concern. She testified against HB205.
"It's concerning to me that people think that we're just mailing ballots randomly to the public and not keeping track of who receives a ballot, who it is intended for and if it comes back from that person," Ackerman said. "Part of that is the signature verification process. So, we are checking that."
Ackerman's office reported roughly 11,000 votes in the November 2022 election. Only 917 of those votes came through absentee ballots. She echo's McGrane thoughts that absentee ballots are secure with no evidence of wide-spread election fraud in Idaho.
"For what that's worth, I'm not sure. Because sometimes people are convinced otherwise. It doesn't matter what I say. They're gonna be convinced there is fraud whether I can prove it or not," Ackerman said.
O'Donnell points to the Heritage Foundation for uncovering cases of election fraud in other states. Heritage is a conservative think tank, according to O'Donnell.
"It doesn't mean they are always right, but they are coming from a conservative perspective," O'Donnell said. "So, I would think conservative legislators should at least acknowledge their argument."
Heritage's argument in the Gem State is highlighted by 10 individual cases of documented criminal voter fraud spanning from 2004 to 2017. One case, in 2009, stemmed from an absentee ballot; a man attempted to vote twice using an absentee ballot.
The man pled guilty to a misdemeanor, according to Heritage.
Governor Brad Little (R-Idaho) expressed his support for absentee ballots Feb. 25 due to its utility for voters in rural parts of the state.
"There are limited opportunities for public transportation for one thing. Sometimes people don't have the ability to get to their polling location," Ackerman said.
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