These local counties saw ‘high’ voter turnouts; other counties saw big drop in voters

IDAHO FALLS – For several counties in eastern Idaho, Tuesday’s municipal election brought a higher number of registered voters to the polls than in previous years.

EastIdahoNews.com obtained data from election administrators in Bannock, Bingham, Bonneville, Jefferson and Madison counties and three out of the five showed a slight increase from the last municipal election in either 2019 or 2021.

Julie Hancock, Bannock County’s election director says a total of 12,566 ballots were cast out of 42,745 registered voters, which puts voter turnout at 29.4%. That’s a 7% increase from the 2019 election, when voter turnout was only 22%.

Bannock County had several contested races happening, including city council races in Inkom, Chubbuck and Pocatello, along with a school board election in Pocatello-Chubbuck School District 25 and Marsh Valley School District 21. There was also a $45 million bond election in District 25. Hancock thinks there was a lot of interest in these races, which is one reason why voter turnout was higher.

Hancock says the higher numbers may also have something to do with growth in the county.

“More people, more turnout,” Hancock tells EastIdahoNews.com. “I know this community is growing like crazy. I don’t have numbers on that … but you can tell just in traffic on a normal day.”

Bingham County also saw a 7% increase. In Nov. 2021, voter turnout was just under 20% and in the November 2023 election there was just under 28%.

Election director Danette Miller cites several contested school board elections in Aberdeen and a $67.8 million school bond election in Shelley as the main draws in Bingham County.

And there was a surprising amount of participation for an obscure race in a rural community.

“Out in the Springfield-Sterling area, they had a board member for their cemetery (on the ballot) for the first time ever,” Miller says. “It actually brought out 100 people to vote. Usually you have to beg someone to be on the cemetery board. They had an individual who was running against the incumbent (so there was a lot of interest).”

In Bonneville and Jefferson counties, there was a decrease in voter participation.

A total of 8,054 registered voters, which includes early and absentee ballots, showed up at the polls in Bonneville County. Election supervisor Helena Welling says that equates to a 14% turnout overall, compared to 2021 when voter turnout was 19.74%.

Though the number of voters was much higher in 2021 (11,699 voters participated), Welling says there were more cities having elections this time around.

“This year, you had Ammon, Idaho Falls, Iona and Ucon having elections — not the same number of cities as before,” Welling explains. “Out of the qualified voters (in those communities), only 14% turned out.”

There were multiple city council races in Bonneville County this year. In 2021, there was a mayoral election in Idaho Falls, which Welling says could explain why voter turnout was higher at that time.

Voter turnout in Jefferson County was 17.4%, according to elections administrator Cathy Dabell. A city council race in Rigby and three school board elections were the only contested elections. It’s not clear how the county as a whole fared in comparison to previous years, but the city of Rigby saw a 6% decrease in voter turnout since November 2021.

In the last four years, Madison County has also seen a decrease in overall voter turnout. Tuesday’s election averaged a little more than 15%, compared to 2019 when there was 19.96% voter turnout.

Election clerk Brenda Stoor credits the higher number in 2019 with a heated mayoral election in Sugar City.

Historically, presidential elections bring out the highest numbers of registered voters. In the last presidential election, voter turnout in Bingham County was more than 79% — one of the highest in recent history.

Similarly, Bonneville County also set a record for absentee ballots in the 2020 primary. Nearly 20,000 absentee ballots were sent out because the COVID-19 pandemic kept the polls closed. In a typical election year, County Clerk Penny Manning says the number of absentee ballots is around 4,000.

Counties throughout eastern Idaho are anticipating voter participation to be really high in 2024 and they’re planning accordingly.