National Voter Registration Day

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - Today is National Voter Registration Day, created to encourage unregistered, new voters, or people who have changed addresses since the last election, to add their names to the voter lists.

In Idaho, voter registration must be complete by October 19. The option is to register at your polling place on election day. 

Once registered, you may request an absentee ballot at any time. In Bonneville County, the first of those ballots will begin to go out this week.  In person voting will begin October 5 at the Elections Office.

Absentee ballots may be returned by mail or at a drop off box at the county elections office.  

This year, by direction of the legislature, any ballots returned to the courthouse will be screened by the election office and placed under 24-hour television surveillance.  That system is intended to insure the public that the votes are not being tampered with between the time they arrive and the time they are counted.

In Idaho, all of those votes will be counted on election day.

So far, the Bonneville County Elections Office has sent out 16,000 absentee ballots. The county normally handles 3,000 to 4,000 absentee ballots in a general election. In 2016, there were around 45,000 total votes cast, representing 77.6% of registered voters. 8,100 were early voters and 2,796 were mail-in ballots.

You can check your status through the Idaho Secretary of State’s “Idaho Votes” website. You can find answers to your specific questions, check your voter record, register to vote, or request an absentee ballot.