County
Ada Elections By The Numbers
November 4, 2008 
When you see the talking TV heads spouting numbers and trends during election coverage, some of it will have come from the Ada County spinmeister shop. If you want to check local results at the same speed the media folks do it, here is an ELECTION RESULTS link.
Absentee votes–and there are a bunch of them–will be released after 9 p.m. when North Idaho polls close.
The info in the FACT SHEET Ada County issued today to help the media folks is posted below:
VOTER REGISTRATION:
• 2008 General Election:
There are currently approx. 199,000 registered voters in Ada County – this
number will increase due to same-day registration provision at the polls
o 20,000 have registered since the primary
o State estimates approx. 80% voter turnout statewide
o Based on that calculation Ada County election officials expect more than
160,000 votes cast today
• 2004 General Election:
Ada County had 208,170 registered voters with more than 157,000 ballots
cast during the 2004 Presidential Election
o Ada County saw 75% voter turnout during the 2004 General Election
o Approx. 38,700 voters registered at the polls that day
EARLY VOTING
• 2008 General Election
As of Monday (11-03) 83,000 registered voters cast an early ballot (more than
half expected turnout)
o Approx. 15,780 votes cast at the Barrister early voting location
o Approx. 67,500 people have requested absentee ballots, and of those approx.
62,235 have returned them by mail
o Exactly 5,307 voters have not returned their absentee ballot, and to do so
they must personally drop off the ballot at the Ada County Courthouse, which
remains open until 8 p.m. today
• 2004 General Election
Only 26,348 registered voters voted early
o 22,348 registered voters requested and returned an absentee ballot
o Approx. 4,000 voted early at Ada County’s early poll location
ELECTION DAY PROCESSES
• Approx. 925 election workers on duty Election Day in Ada County
o Mostly paid temporary election workers, some county employees
o Approx. 100 to 125 workers at the election headquarters on Election Day
o Approx. 800 workers at the polling places
• Ada County has 141 precincts countywide
o In December, Ada County added17 precincts added in western Ada County
o As of 10 a.m., average wait times were about a half an hour at the polls
COUNTING PROCESS
o Absentee precincts and early voter ballots to be counted first
• Counting those ballots began during the afternoon of Election Day, but
because of the time difference in northern Idaho precincts, results
CANNOT be released until after 9 p.m. local time.
o After the precincts close, ballots are delivered to the Election Headquarters
at 5550 Morris Hill Drive
o Box is logged in as received and taken to verification station
o Verification station logs receipt of ballots and verifies that none are torn,
stained, wrinkled, or otherwise unreadable by the optical scan tabulators
o Ballots are then delivered to the counting station where they’re processed by
the counting machine
• The new Optical Scan Ballot tabulating machine counts 250 to 300
ballots a minute
• Ada County debuted the Optical Scan Ballot voting method during the
2008 Primary Election
• Results are unofficial until the canvass which usually takes a few days
o Unofficial results will be posted to the Ada County Web site
(www.adaweb.net) every hour to hour-and-a-half on Election Night
http://www.adaweb.net/departments/ClerkAuditorRecorder/Elections/EL45-HTM-ELECTION%20SUMMARY.HTM
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Nov 5, 2008, 9:08 am
Although some of the races didn’t turn out the way I personally desired, if in fact, we had an 80% voter turn-out, I’m good with the results.
It can’t be all bad when the people have indeed spoken.
Now we need to work on getting this level of participation in “off year” and local elections!
Nov 5, 2008, 10:14 am
Does anyone know if the vehicle registration initiative passed or failed? I can’t seem to find info on that anywhere
Nov 5, 2008, 12:46 pm
If you read the link posted, you’d find the information at the end…just like the ballot.
It passed:
113604 YES
56326 NO
Nov 5, 2008, 2:38 pm
That sucks. I was terribly upset by the language used on the ballot. It was overwhelmingly in favor of the increase. I wish I could find of a copy of the actual language to give an accurate quote, but it described a Yes vote as providing money for sidewalks, bike lanes, traffic congestion relief and repairing roads and bridges, and a No vote as cutting four million dollars from much needed projects. It made the voting yes sound nothing but positive and a no vote nothing but negative – hardly neutral language.
Nov 5, 2008, 6:47 pm
I was a bit disappointed in the outcome of the presidential election.
Not for the reasons you might think, though.
The problem is that I voted for Obama.
In nearly all the elections I’ve voted in during the last half-century, I could honestly say later, whenever one of those elected screwed up big-time, “Hey, it’s not my fault. I didn’t vote for him!”
But this time, I voted for a winner. Now what will I say if he really blows it on something(s)?