High number of early voters for Idaho Falls mayoral runoff election

The mayoral runoff elections for Idaho Falls and Blackfoot are set for next Tuesday, December 5th. The Bonneville County Elections Office is getting ready by testing its voting equipment.

For this election, each precinct will have an electronic reader machine, which should speed up the process. The Bonneville County Elections Office says it has seen a high number of early voters for the runoff election. They’ve had almost 1,000 early voters and more than 300 of the over 400 mailed ballots have been returned. Testing the voting equipment is an important part of the whole voting process.

“We do testing before, during and after just to make sure our equipment is working properly and to make sure the ballots are reading the way they’re supposed to,” Penny Manning, Bonneville County Clerk, said. “We don’t want any incidentals coming up election night to surprise us. So we make sure we’ve got a good ballot that’ll be read by our equipment.”

You have until this Friday to vote early. Mailed in ballots will be received until 8 pm Tuesday, but are no longer being sent out. You can also drop off ballots after hours in the drop box located outside the elections office.