Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane addressed common voter inquiries ahead of the November 3 general election, clarifying procedures for write-in candidates, ballot completion, and online registration verification.
Write-In Candidate Requirements
Residents interested in running as a write-in candidate must file a “Declaration of Intent” with the Secretary of State’s Office. The deadline to submit this declaration for the current election cycle was September 4. Votes cast for individuals who did not file the required paperwork will not be counted.
Jacob Burnett is the only independent gubernatorial candidate who successfully filed a write-in declaration this year. Voters may skip any race or question on their ballot without invalidating the rest of their selections, according to Joe Parris, an official with the Secretary of State’s office.
Ballot Measures and Advisory Questions
The upcoming ballot includes House Joint Resolution 4, House Joint Resolution 6, and Proposition 1. Each of these measures offers voters only “yes” or “no” options. An advisory question regarding the selection of an official state gun provides six specific choices and does not permit write-in responses.
Voter Registration Verification
Election staff verify signatures on all absentee ballots by comparing them against voter registration records, previous signature history, and driver’s license data. Voters who have moved, changed their names, or have not voted in four years are required to update their registration information.
Confusion has arisen regarding the VoteIdaho.Gov search tool, which has stricter matching requirements than some users expect. Some voters believed they had been purged from the rolls when they could not find their records. No voters are being removed from the rolls; the issue stems from the search function’s precision.
Users must enter their name exactly as it appears in registration records, avoiding nicknames or extra characters. Address searches can also encounter hurdles if directional abbreviations include periods or other formatting differences. For example, searching for an address at the Idaho State Capitol requires entering “700 W Jefferson St, Boise 83702” precisely to locate polling information.
Petition Signature Validation
Conservative North Idaho blogger Summer Bushnell recently posted lists of petition signers for Proposition 1 by county. Initiative petition signatures are public records obtained through requests to the Secretary of State’s office. The published lists contain unverified names, some of which may be invalid due to duplicates or ineligibility.
A signature is counted only once, even if a voter signed multiple times. All signatures are validated at the county level during the petition-gathering cycle. Ballot initiatives allow residents to propose and decide on new laws. Supporters must collect signatures from at least 6% of registered voters statewide and from 6% of registered voters in at least 18 of Idaho’s 35 legislative districts.