Idaho election official: ‘No reason for concern’

MOSCOW — State elections officials don’t anticipate any abnormal delays in delivering absentee ballots to Idaho voters during the November election.

Based on recent conversations with the U.S. Postal Service, Chief Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck said there’s “no reason for concern” that delivery delays might result in someone’s ballot not being counted.

Speaking at the Idaho Association of County Recorders and Clerks annual convention in Moscow on Tuesday, Houck said the postal service expects to maintain its standard two- to five-day delivery time for first-class mail.

When you combine that with mail bin tags and other identifiers that alert postal workers about election mailings, he said, “it actually speeds that process up.”

Houck said his office has received a number of calls about this issue since the end of July, when the postal service sent out a letter suggesting that, in most states, statutory deadlines for requesting and returning absentee ballots might not give voters enough time to respond, based on standard mail delivery times.

The letter noted that delivery times for discounted marketing mail — which most states use for ballots because it’s substantially cheaper than the first-class rate — is three to 10 days.

Given the expected surge in absentee voting this year because of the coronavirus pandemic, the letter raised concerns that millions of ballots might not be counted because they aren’t returned on time.

The issue gained further momentum last week, after President Donald Trump said he opposed additional funding for the postal service, in part because of his opposition to mail-in voting.

In Idaho, the statutory deadline for requesting an absentee ballot is 11 days prior to an election, which in the case of this year’s Nov. 3 general election is Oct. 23.

“That’s been the deadline since 1972,” Houck said, and there haven’t been widespread problems with delivery times.

Idaho already uses first-class mail to deliver absentee ballots, so there shouldn’t be any problems this year either, he said, so long as the postal service meets its two- to five-day standard.

During his conversations with postal officials, Houck said, they also told him that election mailing “only makes up 2 percent of their daily volume, at its peak.”

None of this, however, means county clerks will have clear sailing for the November election. Given the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, they’re actively encouraging voters to vote early and vote absentee. However, they’ll also set up polling places for traditional in-person voting.

In response to a question from Houck on Tuesday, many of the clerks said they could use help lining up poll workers for the Nov. 3 election.

Houck said he’s had conversations with the governor’s office about activating the Idaho National Guard to help with the election. He sees little chance of that happening, but said the governor might be willing to encourage Guard members to volunteer as poll workers, if that’s something the clerks wanted.

As a group, the clerks have also advocated for a special legislative session to provide some flexibility regarding polling stations and absentee ballot mailing deadlines.

Gov. Brad Little has already called for a special session to begin Monday, but hasn’t yet announced what issues will be considered.

Spence may be contacted at bspence@lmtribune.com or (208)-791-9168.