Secretary of State Lawerence Denney Requests Delay in May 19 Primary Election, Expands #VoteEarlyIdaho to Include Online Requests

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Download the Press Release PDF

Date: March 27, 2020
Contact: Chad Houck, Chief Deputy Secretary of State
Phone: (208) 332-2862

Boise, Idaho – Early Friday afternoon Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney delivered a formal request to Governor Brad Little to delay the May 19 Primary Election and to close all polling locations for the same.

Please see the attached letter for the full request.

REGARDLESS OF THE ELECTION DATE, THE SAFE VOTE IS AN ABSENTEE VOTE

In the weeks to come, Secretary of State Lawerence Denney and Idaho’s 44 county clerks will be promoting absentee voting for the Primary election through the #VoteEarlyIdaho campaign, which will include mailings to all registered Idaho voters informing them of the absentee process and timelines. “Please do your part to help us keep you and your neighbors safe by requesting your absentee ballot today” says Secretary of State Lawerence Denney. “This will give our county clerks and their teams more time to respond to the increased volume of requests under the current conditions.”

In order to expedite the process for Idahoans to request their absentee ballot for the Primary election, the Secretary of State’s office has now made online absentee ballot requests available for those registered electors with an Idaho driver’s license or ID card. “We only turned this on 48 hours ago, and in that short window of time over 4,000 registered voters have requested their absentee ballot,” says Chief Deputy Secretary of State Chad Houck. “As we begin to promote this opportunity more broadly in the coming days, we hope to see that number grow substantially.” Visit https://IdahoVotes.gov/vote-early-idaho to request your absentee ballot. Downloadable request forms are available for those without the requirements for the online system. Ballot request forms can also be obtained from county clerks offices and websites.

To help spread the word, the Idaho Secretary of State asks all Idahoans to share the campaign on social media using the hashtag #VoteEarlyIdaho, as well as to like and follow the Secretary of State on Facebook and Twitter (@IDSecOfState) in order to stay updated on changing elections information. Links and graphics to share #VoteEarlyIdaho can be found at https://idahovotes.gov/vote-early-tools/.

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ABOUT LAWERENCE DENNEY

Lawerence Denney has served the people of Idaho since 1990. His public service began as a representative in District 13 and, following redistricting, he became a representative in District 9 until 2014. During that time, Denney served two terms as Majority Leader and three terms as Speaker of the House before successfully running for state office. He is currently in his second term as Idaho’s Secretary of State.

System Upgrade In Progress

Campaign Finance, Lobbyist Reporting, and Online Voter Tools are expected to be offline from April 9th at 5:00 p.m. MDT, through April 12th at 8:00 a.m. MDT to complete a system upgrade.

Per Idaho Code 67-6607, campaign finance is reported monthly during a campaign’s election year. The deadline for the March report falls on Saturday, April 10th. Due to the interruption caused by this upgrade, political treasurers will be allowed to file the March report until 11:59 p.m. MDT on Monday, April 12th.

While we do our best to ensure compliance with all deadlines in statute, the timing of this release is critical to ensure minimal (or no) impact to the May election cycle. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.