BOISE, Idaho — While many Idahoans are anxiously awaiting Nov. 3 to cast their ballot in the presidential election, thousands of Idahoans have already completed their civic duty.
In fact, Ada and Canyon counties issued more absentee ballots than ever before during this election season.
To help process all those absentee ballots in a timely manner, the Idaho legislature passed Senate Bill (SB) 1001 during a special legislative session this past August.
SB 1001 allows Idaho counties to open and scan ballots one week before Election Day, but the ballots cannot be counted until after polls close on Nov. 3.
For transparency purposes, if counties choose to open and scan absentee ballots before Election Night, the process must be live-streamed and available to the public
In Ada County, 140,000 people requested absentee ballots. Of that number, 100,000 have been returned, according to Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane.
To put that into perspective, during the last presidential election in 2016, only 25,000 people in Ada County voted absentee.
SB 1001 will be a game-changer for the counties tasked with processing a huge influx of absentee ballots, according to McGrane.
"We could have either started now like we are doing and use this entire week leading up to the election to get all of these ballots open and scanned in or we could start on election day and it would take over a week after election day to get the results," McGrane said.
SB 1001 sunsets at the end of 2020 and will only apply to this upcoming election.
Gretchen Parsons is an anchor, reporter and producer at KTVB since 2016. You can follow her on Instagram @gretchenparsonsKTVB or @gretchenKTVB on Twitter.
Watch more 'Local News'
See them all in our YouTube playlist: