City Government
Early Voting Open In Boise Council Race
October 19, 2009 
Several candidates for Boise City Council have reminded us folks can vote early, starting today, October 18th, Monday through Friday for the next two weeks, from 10AM to 4PM. The early voting poll location is 400 N. Benjamin Lane (behind Target near the mall between Franklin and Emerald in a warehouse district).
It is the most secure way to vote. The ballots will be cast, securely stored, and counted in the same building. Early voting is new to Idaho. The new facility, opened in 2009, is monitored by a state of the art camera system to ensure fairness.
You can also get new driver’s license and license plates at the same location which is operated by Ada County. We have had several good reports on the DMV operation. The election is being conducted by the Ada County Clerk on a contract basis for Boise City.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Oct 19, 2009, 2:40 pm
The new facility is nice but fairly inconvenient. Make sure you go early in the morning and I guess on Wed. according to http://www.adasheriff.org/Records/driversLicense.asp
I still miss being able to get a drivers license at the courthouse.
Oct 19, 2009, 6:42 pm
I voted today. What I like best is that my ballot never leaves the building. After touring the facility this summer, I developed a confidence in how security is handled. Early voting is really the best way to go. There is a large bank of windows that makes watching the counting of ballots very convenient too. Why wait until election day to vote? There’s no reason.
Oct 20, 2009, 7:38 am
I have a huge problem with early voting and most of all mail in ballots.
I remember not too long ago with the Jr. college in Nampa that Ada voters rejected by large numbers that went in and voted. Yet when the mail in ballots were counted the new tax feeder hotel won. My gut feeling was this was voter fraud and nothing but. The people who went in and voted had it right, who is going to be able to make classes after work in the 84 traffic. Just what 84 needs at rush hour a few thousand more cars on the freeway. The mail in votes on the Jr. college to this day are questioned by many, who believe it was a case of voter fraud.
Vote on one day, if you can’t make it get someone to take you. Otherwise you don’t vote.
Oct 20, 2009, 8:08 am
I have a huge problem with any citizen who has evidence, or even a suspicion of voter fraud that does not come forth. No LOGICAL citizen would remain silent when democracy is subverted. Certainly not a patriotic American. I know of no reports or allegations of voter fraud in the Community College election.
Oct 20, 2009, 11:51 am
Well lets see here for a minute. Didn’t OJ kill his wife and Ron Goldman but didn’t get convicted. Only later those shoes showed up in a photo of a Bill’s get together.
Now if I remember correctly. Meridian had a school bond that any Meridian citizen could go to any school and vote. The ballot sheets were simple 8 1/2 X 11 inch every day office paper. Not numbered in fact. Any voter in Meridian could vote at a school and without numbered ballets could do so more than a few times. So did Merdian have any voter fraud?
Speaking of logical citizens. I believe they are called, mobs, nazi’s and racist. By the very did OJ kill his wife?
Oct 20, 2009, 5:17 pm
I’m all for early voting–especially in typically low-voter interest elections like the city council. However, with two weeks until Election Day, I find two recent developments troubling.
First, early voting opened yesterday for the Boise City Council Elections. Great, right? Not so fast. There’s only one early voting location and it is located west of the Boise Town Square Mall at the new Ada County facility on Benjamin Street. In the past, citizens had the opportunity to vote downtown at Boise City Hall, as well as the public safety building on Barrister. Now, without the downtown option, citizens from the north, east and central neighborhoods must drive across town to cast an early ballot.
I’ve heard that the reason there’s only one location is due to restrictions resulting from the switch to optical scan ballots. That seems unlikely since the county elections in 2008 utilized the technology and there was an early voting site at City Hall. However, it took some pressure for them to open it.
Second, evidently, the decision was made to consolidate two precincts in western Boise. While not an uncommon move, it has led to an uncommon–and what I’d call an unfair–decision. Evidently, the clerk’s office is not just notifying voters of the consolidation and voting location, they’re sending unsolicited absentee ballot requests to every voter in the affected precincts. Notification is acceptable–and they could even advise them of the ability to vote early (at Benjamin) or by mail. But to blanket the area with vote-by-mail request forms is quite unfair to the rest of Boise.
Oct 20, 2009, 8:54 pm
“…monitored by a state of the art camera system to ensure fairness…”
Somehow that doesn’t sound like the sort of assurance I look for in a polling place. Maybe with a bit more description I’d feel better about the idea of surveillance?
Oct 21, 2009, 6:02 pm
The cameras are on the counting floor and the tabulation room. There are no cameras in the polling booths. The cameras are to ensure the security of the ballots only.
Oct 22, 2009, 8:19 am
The cameras are to ensure the security of the ballots only.
The cameras do not provide any security but enable police and DA’s to get convictions “if” any crimes happen. Keep in mind police almost never stop crimes but are there to clean up after crimes. The cameras are nothing but a big brother tool that will only grow to one day maybe we won’t mind them in our own homes. Kind of like the new electric meters of Smart Grid that will know everything you run and use in your home. Frankly, my fellow citizens are not so evil that we need to be watched with cameras non-stop. This is so un-American I don’t know where to start with folks who don’t get it.
Oct 22, 2009, 12:01 pm
the cameras are everywhere… did the book 1984 inspire the use of cameras or was it just foretelling the future?
Oct 22, 2009, 4:51 pm
Early voting and mail-in voting is great! It gives a better opportunity for those whom can not get to a polling place on an election day to actually be able to vote and not run around trying to get to their polling place in time. Heaven forbid you get there at 8:01 p.m.