CANYON COUNTY, Idaho — Results took a bit longer than expected in Canyon County on Election Day. Poll workers stayed through the night Tuesday into Wednesday afternoon to finish counting every ballot – following Idaho Code that says once ballot counting begins, it must be completed without adjournment.
There were a few reasons for the delay, according to Canyon County Clerk Rick Hogaboam. He said the main cause was that absentee ballots could not start being processed through the scanner until Tuesday, Nov. 5.
“If we had a week prior to Election Day, we would have been out of here last night after the last of our 45 polling locations came in,” Hogaboam said. “Because all of that (absentee ballots) would have been fully scanned, tabulated and reported to the public.”
In the 2020 election, poll workers were able to start scanning absentee ballots seven days prior to Election Day. That law expired in December 2020 and was not renewed – meaning poll workers had to wait until Election Day to begin processing absentee ballots.
Early voting ballots and in-person ballots all get processed through the scanner on the spot, right after someone votes, Hogaboam said.
“In the past, they used to allow us up to seven days prior to Election Day to actually start opening and scanning ballots with protocols, but they put an expiration date on that for Dec. 31 2020 – which means we don't have that allowance to open and scan the week prior to Election Day in preparation,” Hogaboam said.
Not only was the delay due to not being able to count absentee ballots, but also because Canyon County’s ballots were three pages long. In comparison, Ada County’s ballots were only two pages, allowing them to process quicker.
Canyon County also only had three high-speed electronic scanners, whereas Ada County had seven, according to election officials.
“It's like we're processing thousands of more ballots because of that extra page tacked on all of them,” Hogaboam said.
Canyon County had a historic voter turnout as well. 102,374 ballots were cast, an increase of more than 10,000 than in 2020, Hogaboam said.
“This is the most people who've ever voted in an election in the history of Canyon County,” Hogaboam said.
Hogaboam said they will continue to work hard to ensure every election in Canyon County is secure, but also efficient in years to come.
“I just hope the people of Canyon County realize we're doing the best we can to accommodate elections for all the things in Canyon County,” Hogaboam said.