Primary Election Decides Bingham County Races

Primaries carry a little more weight in some places, like Bingham County, where all county races were expected to be decided on Tuesday night. That’s because no Democrats were on the ballot.

Bingham County Elections Director Marlene Jensen said voter turnout was steady throughout the day. She said she thought that had a lot to do with all contested county races on the line.

“Tonight … is it,” said Craig Rowland, one of two candidates in the Bingham County Sheriff’s race.

Rowland didn’t think he could have run a better campaign. After months of yard signs, TV commercials and traveling door to door, the wait is over.

“(With) nobody else running against you in November … put a few signs up, a few advertisements,” said Rowland. “It’s a lot less money.”

That goes for all county elected officials in Bingham. Candidates for commissioner seats and prosecutor were all running as Republicans with no one on the Democratic side.

“Bingham County is probably about 85 to 90 percent registered voters as Republican,” said Jensen.

That leaves the general election irrelevant in some categories, unless an Independent files.

“I think if an Independent came in, I don’t think it would be a strong enough candidate, but who knows,” said Jensen.

Rowland said he was only concerned about killing time in Tuesday night’s critical hours.

“I’m going to freak out until the results start coming in, then we’ll see,” he said.

We weren’t able to catch up with incumbent Sheriff Dave Johnson on Tuesday. He said he was waiting it out at the Bingham County courthouse.

Jensen said voters seemed to be very confused about the Republican’s closed primary, which also meant registering with the party to vote.

Since the affiliation is public record, Jensen said it was stopping some voters from filling out ballots. But mostly, she said it didn’t affect turnout.

The Bingham County Sheriff’s race is a rematch between Johnson and Rowland. In 2004, Johnson won by a slim margin.