Voter turnout for Tuesday’s primary election in Bannock County was down significantly from both two and four years ago while turnout results in Power County were about par for the course.
Perhaps the Idaho GOP switching from a presidential primary to a caucus system this year had a negative impact on overall voter turnout in Bannock County.
According to Bannock County Elections Administrator Julie Hancock, a total of 7,002 county residents had voted by the time polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Hancock said with about 45,142 registered voters in Bannock County, that figure represents a 15.51 percent voter turnout.
In comparison to the May primaries in 2022 and 2020, 15.51 percent turnout is almost a 50 percent decrease from the 27.2 percent and 28.16 percent from two and four years ago, respectively.
Bannock County during the May 2022 primary election had a voter turnout of 27.2 percent. That means that 12,472 of the county’s 45,850 registered voters cast a ballot.
During the May 2020 primary in Bannock County, voter turnout was 28.16 percent, but fewer overall people voted than in 2022, with a total of 12,172 county residents voting. There were also fewer registered voters — 43,227 — in Bannock County in 2020 compared to 2022.
“Definitely, the caucus could have had an impact but we’ve had primaries in years that didn’t have the presidential nomination with higher turnout,” Hancock said. “Not a lot of people were looking to see the president on this ballot but we did have a handful of people inquire about that. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that governor, secretary of state and educational measures were not on this ballot, but in all honesty it could be a myriad of things.”
Hancock said this was the first year the Bannock County Elections Office used a live poll book, which allowed officials in the elections office to see how many ballots were being handed out and at which precincts in real time.
“We have electronic poll books now,” Hancock said. “We watched every single precinct live (on Tuesday). We could log into any precinct and see how many ballots we issued and broadcast it on our big TVs here in the office.”
Hancock said the software allows elections officials to see when electronic poll books are working or not at any of Bannock County’s 57 precincts.
“It’s a beautiful, wonderful system that’s incredibly secure,” she said. “We were one of the last big counties in the state to get them and we are glad to have them.”
Hancock said that while the electronic poll books can track how many ballots were distributed and at what precincts, the software does not tabulate the final results. The tabulation process is still conducted at the Bannock County Elections Office in Pocatello once all the polls close at 8 p.m.
“The two technologies do not communicate at all,” Hancock said. “We still have to tabulate.”
In Power County, voter turnout was 32 percent on Tuesday, a slight increase from 2022 but less than May 2020 that was a presidential primary, according to Power County Clerk Sharee Sprague.
A total number of 1,149 of the 3,581 registered voters in Power County cast a ballot by the time polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday. There were 61 same-day registrations on Tuesday in Power County.
Power County during the May 2022 primary election had a voter turnout of 29.1 percent. That means that 1,038 of the county’s 3,518 registered voters cast a ballot.
During the May 2020 primary in Power County, voter turnout was 48.61 percent.
Sprague says the electronic poll books in Power County “have been amazing.” The technology has been in place there since 2018.
Sprague said her county typically comes in with a voter turnout around 30 percent, primarily because of “a good core of people that come out to vote every year.” She also said it’s unusual for the county to have two contested commissioner races in the primary like it did on Tuesday, which drove more people out to the polls.
Additionally, Sprague said that she is aware of a group of people that chose not to vote in this election because of the change in the presidential nomination from a primary vote to a caucus. The Idaho GOP presidential caucus was held on March 2 and the Democratic presidential caucus is set for Thursday.
“Another thing that impacted us is I think there’s a core group of voters that did not come out (Tuesday) because of the presidential caucuses,” she said. “I know of 10 off the top of my head for sure.”
One complaint Sprague fielded several times in the weeks leading up to election day was the fact that residents were forced to affiliate with a party at the same time candidates were required to declare.
“I was actually expecting the turnout to be a little bit higher, but the earlier party affiliation deadline dissuaded people,” she said. “We had a lot of feedback that that is way too early.”
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