Some Boise Voters Get Absentee Requests
City sends ballot requests to newly consolidated precincts
by Nathaniel HoffmanArticle Tools
The City of Boise sent letters this week to about 3,100 registered voters who live in 10 consolidated polling districts in advance of the Nov. 3 city election. Along with the letter, which informs voters of their polling place, is an absentee ballot request form, the same form that is available at the city clerk’s office and on its Web site [pdf].
- Letter sent to registered voters in 10 consolidated Boise precincts.
Deputy City Clerk Wendy Burrows-Johnson said in September that they consolidate precincts—mainly combining ones within city limits with precincts that straddle city and county lines—in order to save money. Most of the same precincts were combined in 2007 as well, she said, since odd-year elections are generally held within city limits, but the precincts follow county boundaries.
Burrows-Johnson said this morning that the letter and absentee request were sent to a small group of Boise voters, but that the consolidated precincts are scattered around the city, though the bulk of the affected voters are in West Boise.
“We’ve inconvenienced those people by not allowing them to vote in their normal precincts, but basically the [absentee voting] opportunity is available to everyone in the city,” she said.
- 2009 Boise Precinct Map
City Council Seat 4 candidate TJ Thomson said Wednesday that all voters should have gotten absentee ballot requests, not a select group.
“It troubles me to see that the City of Boise elections office has sent absentee request forms to only select precincts in Boise, as opposed to all of Boise’s citizens,” Thomson said. “I want to see high voter turnout across the city, but this mailer was only intended to increase turnout in the outskirts of Boise, in newly consolidated precincts … I strongly recommend the city take a close look at rectifying this situation and treat all voters across Boise equally in the future.”
Last year, Ada County sent absentee ballot requests to all county voters, but Burrows-Johnson said the city has never done that in city-wide elections.
Seat 6 Candidate Lucas Baumbach, who criticized the city two months ago for consolidating precincts in conservative leaning parts of the city, said the mailing does not rectify the situation.
“If they’re only sending them out to those precincts, it’s just another indication that they know what they did was wrong,” Baumbach said. “They’ve made moves that are tantamount to disenfranchising people.”
Baumbach maintains that particularly in precincts 92, 93 and 96, in West Boise, the consolidation puts too many voters at a single polling place.
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Baumbach really has all the facts. There has never been a better informed city-council candidate. It's too bad that the Democrat Party has it in for him. He really raises the quality of debate.
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