Bingham among 2 counties to be audited by Idaho election officials after underreported votes

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — Election results in two Idaho counties that initially underreported ballots in last week’s election will be audited by state officials.

But the audits aren’t targeted.

Idaho State Controller Brandon Woolf on Friday plucked numbered tiles representing Latah and Bannock counties out of a bingo-style tumbler as state officials randomly drew counties to undergo audits. The audits, required by a 2022 state law, are meant to verify the accuracy of election results reported by counties, which run elections locally.

But the unusual news out of Latah and Bannock counties — reported nearly a week after the election — was on the mind of state officials who serve on the Idaho State Board of Canvassers, a panel that is preparing to certify the state election results.

Before the random draw, Secretary of State Phil McGrane addressed the unreported ballots in those two counties, which are separated by a full days’ drive.

“Both counties are eligible today to be drawn again. … They will have a chip in the thing,” he said, referring to a golden cage, just before the draw started. “They may be prepared for more counting in each respective county.”

The first to be drawn was eastern Idaho’s Bannock County, where officials on Tuesday found 333 ballots that hadn’t been counted. Soon enough, Latah County in North Idaho joined the list. There, officials recounted all ballots as a cautionary measure after they found more than 2,300 ballots from early voting had not been reported on Election Day.

In both counties, officials said the late ballots left race outcomes unchanged. But they left voters with questions that state officials are still grappling with.

Here’s the full list of Idaho counties that are being audited over the next week:

• Adams County
• Bannock County
• Benewah County
• Caribou County
• Gem County
• Latah County
• Oneida County
• Washington County

How did Latah, Bannock counties underreport votes?

On Sunday, McGrane got the first news about the unreported ballots in Latah County, he said in a Friday interview.

The more than 2,300 ballots in question were counted. They sat on a specialized hard drive in a voting machine, which has no internet access, he said. But that memory device — which can’t be read by a typical computer — wasn’t plugged into the system that loads up results on elections, he said.

“I think it was just a misstep, just human error,” McGrane said.

By Monday, when McGrane met with Latah County Clerk Julie Fry, a local elected Republican, she was already aiming for a full recount. Five members of McGrane’s team flew out to oversee it.

“It was like Election Day 2.0,” McGrane said at the meeting.

Local officials discovered the issue by crunching numbers. They saw that the voter turnout system showed more voters had cast ballots in the area than the number of votes they had actually reported, McGrane said.

In Bannock County, McGrane said the cause was different.

The 333 uncounted ballots had been found in a poll volunteer’s pickup truck, the local newspaper, the Idaho State Journal, reported.

McGrane said his team got a call from Bannock County that they were missing materials.

Then local officials asked the chief judge, who runs the local precinct, if they had them, McGrane said.

The ballot box they found was still closed with a unique seal, so officials knew it hadn’t been tampered with, he said. But since the races there weren’t close enough to where those ballots could’ve changed an outcome, McGrane said a full recount wasn’t needed.

“There are some lessons learned about safeguards. … Now we’re looking at ‘What are other ways we could take additional steps to ensure that this doesn’t happen again in a future election,’” McGrane said.

It’s not immediately clear if state election officials will audit the ballots that initially went unreported in Latah and Bannock counties.

The precinct in Bannock that had unreported votes wasn’t randomly selected for audits. In Latah, the unreported votes were from early votes. It’s unclear if any batches of early votes selected to be audited include the once-unreported ballots there.

How the audits work

As part of the audits, officials with the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office will hand count a random selection of thousands of ballots in each county to compare that to results publicly reported by county clerks.

In the counties selected, officials are slated to audit at least 2,100 ballots, or 5% of precincts from a selection of Election Day votes and early and absentee ballots.

The audits will be for individual races in each county, such as for federal congressional offices, statewide offices such as the governor, or state legislative seats. McGrane gets to decide which races will be audited.

McGrane said his office will soon announce the dates of each audit. The audits are open to the public to observe.

Idaho election officials didn’t include in the random draw counties that were audited in recent elections, or counties that are likely to receive a recount because of close races.

The results from last week’s election remain unofficial until they are certified by the State Board of Canvassers on Nov. 24.

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Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.