City Government
Candidate Baumbach Claims Gerrymander
September 1, 2009 
FINALLY! Something to write about on the Boise City Council election with Council Candidate Lucas Baumback claiming a conspiracy against conservative candidates through gerrymandering voting precincts.
“The poll closures are a bold attempt to disenfranchise thousands of voters by making it inconvenient to vote, due to poll overcrowding and extended travel distances,” said Baumbach in a press release issued Tuesday. Baumbach notes several precincts have been combined by the city clerk and said, “The City should make voting convenient for citizens, no matter where they live in the city.”
In his press release the candidate says the majority of the closed booths are in the
conservative-leaning (Brandi Swindell country) South Boise and West Boise areas. Citizens that want to vote will have to forgo their nearby voting booths and find booths in a nearby precinct.
Baumbach notes one especially notable closure, Precinct 92, which is located between Overland and the freeway and Eagle and Five Mile. According to recent elections this precinct is especially active at the booths and has around 900 registered voters. In 2005 it was the second highest vote-yielding precinct. The substitute voting booths would be 4.5 miles away.
Instead of seeing this consolidation as a conspiracy, perhaps Baumbach should see it as a benefit since the folks with the Cummins Rams and F-250s may be more inclined to drive to the polls than their liberal bicycling counterparts.
Baumbach opposes council president Maryanne Jordan.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Sep 1, 2009, 9:52 pm
Mr. Baumbach needs to calm down. Those precincts were combined in the 2007 election. For example, the combined 81/92 netted only 433 votes (out of more than 1400 registered voters).
As to the 2005 numbers, Brandi won by less 71 votes in precinct 92. She got beat by more than 160 votes in precinct 81. Overall, she lost the race by nearly 40 points.
Plus, Ms. Jordan lives in West Boise. I’m sure she’d love to have as many voting places for her neighbors as possible.
Mr. B should stick to issues, not loony conspiracy theories. What’s next? Demanding proof of Jordan’s birth in the U.S.?
Sep 2, 2009, 12:15 am
Mr. Baumbach should just come out and demad Jordan prove she is not a Socailist!
Sep 2, 2009, 7:58 am
You want to talk disenfranchisement? What about the fact that Boise has added 200,000 people and yet the City Council has remained the same size. Six!
A citizen’s vote has been diluted to a veritable drop in the bucket.
Has any of the council candidates mentioned a plan to expand city council?
Sep 2, 2009, 8:43 am
I’m willing to believe there is some truth to this being in that district and seeing the move from one easy place to vote to one that is critical mass.
However in all fairness I also could believe this is the end results of idiots in government. Better said as, collateral damage by morons without a clue. Need proof by simple arithmetic the city is spending over a million dollars per year in new money so mayor Dave can “get my life back” not having to sort his recyclable trash.
Sep 2, 2009, 9:25 am
I honestly don’t think it’s gerrymandering as much as it’s feedback from voters saying, “We spend HOW MUCH on elections?”
Even in this blog we affix price tags to our public services. Is it any wonder that public officials respond by consolidating those services so that the costs go down?
Seems to me that Idaho’s spending-phobic public should take some responsibility for this one.
EDITOR NOTE–Don’t forget to include the GROWTHOHOLIC politicos who annexed all that territory too.
Sep 2, 2009, 11:49 am
Nick, in 2005 81 had 439 voters and 92 had 683. That’s 1122 total not 433. But, thank you for pointing out that the closure began in 2007. Nick, subtract 433 from 1122, and the City did a good job of disenfranchising the 689 from precinct 92 already. Absentee ballot totals stayed about the same. Whatever way you cut it, it stinks.
Sep 2, 2009, 11:57 am
Bottom Line, If you don’t want to drive to the polling place, Get an ABSENTEE BALLOT – Gives you time to research and think over the issues. Also gives you time to see what is actually on the ballot..
Sep 2, 2009, 10:58 pm
This is awesome. Mr. Bumbling B. going for a Council seat. Recent posts on this blog include the following:
Accusing the City of catering to “ecotourists”….Help the ecotourists are after me, Help the ecotourists are after me. Yeah, Costa Rica is hating the “ecotourists” all the way to the bank.
Blaming the problems at Quinn’s (Clocktower) ponds on a local business. Right, Idaho River Sports came in and the area all of a sudden went down the tubes. Way to denigrate a local boy, small business owner and all around good guy.
Whining about wanting to see his assessments decline dramatically, while his assessments continually rise (8.23.09). Assessments rising this last year?!?!?….as John McEnroe would say (it is U.S. Open season) “You CAN’T be SERIOUS”.
Given the above, I can only come to the conclusion that Bumbling B.:
doesn’t know the nuances of assessments as they relate to tax levy rates (falling assessments can still see an increase in their tax rate , see 3% rule).
hates ecotourists
denigrates a homegrown, local business owner
I would have to say that the Wunderlich B. also doesn’t know his rear end from a hole in the ground.
Sep 3, 2009, 11:05 am
Citizen Eric: 1) Floating on the Boise River is not comparable to Costa Rica’s rainforests. The park was supposed to be for soccer fields not kayaks. Lastly, anyone can drive 45 minutes to experience world-class kayaking on the Payette without a city-owned kayak park. 2) The ponds attract not only IRS customers but also teens that swim off the new docs. As a neighborhood watch chairman for that area, I noted an increase in crime after IRS moved in. I call it like I see it (on the ground). 3) Lots of people are complaining about rising assessments. 4) I like the Bumble Bee imagery. They work hard, play hard and sting hard. That’s a perfect example of how I will serve Boise citizens.
Sep 3, 2009, 1:57 pm
Seriously…..Lucas, Don’t you think people will find a way to vote if they want to vote. They can vote absentee by mail, vote absentee at the absentee polling location or at their precinct. If I want to vote I will make it 5 miles to my polling location, besides this gives me more exercise if I want to ride my bike. I can get healthy and vote all at the same time!
Some small communities in Idaho only have 1 precinct and electors have to drive 15 or more miles to vote.
Why don’t you talk about what changes you will make in our community if you are elected and let us know where you stand on issues affecting our City. That is what I really want to know, not about what voting precinct is combined with what.
Sep 4, 2009, 7:44 am
Absentee voting is a scam and the proof of it is seen in many elections. The Jr. college in Canyon County is a perfect example of sound minds wanting to question absentee voting.
If a person can not make the effort to drag their behinds to the polling place, too bad. Agreed, some people are in health situations that make it impossible for them to make it to the polling place but the fraud that is seemingly involved in absentee voting isn’t worth the risk. I’m all for ending absentee voting for the reasons that it is too easy to cheat the citizens out of a fair process and seems like thats happened in the past.
This polling place shell game is classic of democrats and the Statesman for doing a media blackout of it.
Sep 5, 2009, 11:15 pm
so there goes the rafting/kayaker demographic….Wunderbar Wunderlich B.!!!!!!!!
bees die after they sting……..