McCammon has abundance of write-in candidates
With local elections a little more than two-and-a-half weeks away, sample ballots for each city show all the candidates.
But in one southeast Idaho town, the sample ballot looks a little empty.
Blackfoot has six candidates for mayor, Pocatello and Idaho Falls both have four candidates. But on McCammon’s ballot, there’s no name under the candidates for mayor, only space to write a name.
And there is only one write-in candidate: current Mayor Ken Bullock. Bannock county clerks office says he’s a write-in candidate after a missed deadline caused him to not be on the ballot. But do people really care?
“It will be interesting to see,” said Steve Campbell, a current City Council member, also up for reelection. “I don’t think the election will garner any interest this year.”
He said all Bullock needs is one vote, and he’s guaranteed to win. But could that still be a problem?
Campbell said most folks in McCammon simply enjoy living the quiet life, and he said that’s perfectly fine. But when it comes to voting, that becomes a little bit of a problem.
The city of 805 only had 36 people vote in the last election, so Campbell said it’s likely there’s going to be a lack of interest in the upcoming Nov. 5 election.
“If you’re just having a city election, you usually don’t have much interest,” he said.
Campbell added not only is there a lack of interest in voting, sometimes there’s a lack of involvement in the city’s dealings.
“Sometimes they have a lack if people who have interest who want to get involved,” Campbell said. “Some of them just want things to happen, but they’re not willing to step forward and do anything about it.”
The concern for Campbell is that McCammon’s people will let their voices sound like silence.
Another interesting point in elections comes with write-in candidates. You can’t just write-in any name on the ballot, because you still have to file paperwork to be a write-in candidate.
And be warned: In some elections, writing names like Mickey Mouse or Santa Claus may actually result in someone who has legally made that their name to be elected to the office.
