Getting ready for primary election day

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) - We are just days away from the primary elections in Idaho.

Early voting and preparations are now underway at elections offices throughout the state.

The offices are buzzing with activity as lots of people take advantage of early voting and coming in and picking up sample ballots.

State representative and candidate Nate Roberts is taking advantage of the early voting to make his voice heard.

"To make sure that my vote counts," Roberts said. "I don't want to take the chance of being at work and not being able to get off work in time to make it down to vote on election day."

Election officials are also here to help some answer any questions you might have about the upcoming vote. One of the most important is party affiliation.

Idaho has a closed-primary system, meaning political parties can limit who's allowed to vote in each party's primary.

Idaho residents are asked to affiliate with one of the state's four recognized political parties: Constitution, Democratic, Libertarian or rRepublican. 

Or, voters can choose to remain unaffiliated, but they will receive a non partisan ballot.

"What our public needs to know is that a non partisan ballot is just judges. It is just a judicial ballot. Those judges, however, are also on all four of the other ballot styles. The Libertarians Constitution and Republicans have closed their primaries and the Democrats have opened their primaries which means you have to be affiliated with those three closed primary parties in order to vote that ballot," Bannock County Elections administrator Julie Hancock said.

With the redistricting, there may also be questions about where you vote.

"There were actually more precincts that changed than didn’t with the reapportionment ,so everybody should’ve gotten a letter. The other option is to our website has an interactive map you can click anywhere in your neighborhood, and it’ll direct you to your pulling place and your precinct. That’s also important. Some polling places remain the same, but precinct numbers changed, and so you’re going to go to a different table than you may have in the past."

The clerks office says if you have any questions about the elections the Bannock County Elections website is a great resource or give them a call and they’d be happy to help.

Remember, through Friday at 5 p.m., you can cast an early ballot at the elections office.

On Monday, the elections office is closed and no voting is available. The polls are open this Tuesday from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. for the primary elections.