Two bills tightening Idaho voting rules head to full House

By REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A panel of Idaho lawmakers has approved a bill prohibiting so-called “ballot harvesting” and another tightening the timeline for unaffiliated voters to joint a political party before an election. The House State Affairs Committee sent both bills to the full House with “do pass” recommendations on party-line votes Monday. Opponents testified that both bills amounted to voter suppression. The first bill would make it a crime to take mail-in ballots to the post office for anyone who is not a person’s household member. The second bill  would require unaffiliated voters to join a political party more than a month before Election Day if they want to vote in a closed primary election.