Call for Idaho legislative special session gains traction

Calls for a special legislative session to address Idaho’s election laws earned the tentative support of a new working group Monday.

The State Affairs Working Group also reviewed possible legislative restrictions on gubernatorial emergency powers, as well as a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature to call itself into session.

The interim committee includes members of the House and Senate State Affairs committees. It’s the first of several committees that will meet in the coming weeks to consider issues and concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Monday’s meeting gave lawmakers a chance to air their grievances over Gov. Brad Little’s handling of the pandemic. However, it also served as an opportunity to discuss solutions.

Ada County Clerk Phil McGrane, for example, proposed several bills that would give elections officials greater flexibility in conducting the November general election.

Although the May primary switched to an all-mail election — where voters could only participate by absentee ballot — no decision has been made about the November election.

“There’s no consensus yet among county clerks,” said McGrane, who also leads the elections committee for the Idaho Association of County Recorders and Clerks. “My impression is that we will have some portion of in-person voting in November.”

Unlike Washington, where mail-in elections are standard, Idaho counties aren’t set up to handle a huge influx of absentee ballots, he said. During the May primary, some counties had to buy stamps to provide return postage on the ballots, because they didn’t have postage equipment. Others had to hand-count thousands of ballots on election night.

As complicated as all that is, McGrane said, adding in-person voting on top of it simply magnifies the problem. Now clerks will have to prepare to handle thousands of absentee ballots, while also identifying and staffing multiple polling locations.

Given the nature of the coronavirus, Ada County has already decided not to use senior centers as polling locations, McGrane said. Some churches and private owners have declined the use of their facilities.

Similarly, the average age for poll workers in Idaho is 68 or 69 — putting them in the age group most vulnerable to the virus. At least a quarter of his poll workers have said they won’t be available this year.

What makes clerks even more nervous, McGrane said, is that a late surge in the virus may prompt poll workers to simply not show up on Election Day.

“We have to plan for that,” he said. “And what about polling places for people that have COVID-19? People are entitled to vote; we can’t turn them away. This just highlights some of the difficulties we face.”

To help address some of these concerns, McGrane said, clerks are asking that a special legislative session be held in the near future. Among the legislation they’d like lawmakers to consider is:

A bill allowing county elections officials to establish “voting centers.”

Voters traditionally need to show up at a specific polling location to get the ballot that’s appropriate to their precinct. Voting centers, by contrast, are locations where any voter could show up and get the proper ballot.

This would give people greater flexibility in deciding when and where to vote, McGrane said. It would also allow counties to reduce the number of polling stations, in the event they can’t get enough poll workers.

Any decision about using voting centers would be at the discretion of the county clerk, he said.

A bill reducing the statutory deadline for mailing out absentee ballots from 45 days prior to the election to 30 days.

Federal laws requires absentee ballots for military personnel and any overseas voters to be mailed 45 days prior to Election Day, McGrane said. Idaho law uses the same deadline for local voters.

More than 430,000 absentee ballots were requested statewide during the May primary, he said. That’s about 10 times the normal volume. Roughly three-quarters of them also requested absentee ballots for the general election, so changing the mailing deadline to 30 days for local voters would give county clerks an extra two weeks to process the requests.

A bill giving elections officials additional time to open the return ballots, verify voter signatures and prepare the ballots for counting.

Absentee ballots traditionally aren’t opened until the day before an election, McGrane said, and they’re never counted until after polls close on election night.

Given the expected increase in absentee ballots, he said, this bill would let officials begin processing the ballots as much as a week prior to the election. They still wouldn’t be counted until election night, but it would provide more time for the preparatory work “so we can have results on election night.”

Although the working group was generally receptive to the request for a special session, various members had concerns about some of McGrane’s proposals.

For example, Rep. John Gannon, D-Boise, questioned whether voting centers would be more crowded than traditional polling locations and thereby impinge on social distancing protocols.

McGrane acknowledged that public health experts recommend having more polling locations rather than less, but noted there’s a “balancing act” between that and not having enough poll workers to staff them.

Sen. Mary Souza, R-Coeur d’Alene, also urged caution about “doing anything in response to a temporary virus that jeopardizes our election integrity going forward.”

The working group accepted public testimony by phone from several people, all of whom supported a mail ballot election.

Kelly Hardy, who was at home awaiting the results of a COVID-19 test, said that would be the safest option for everyone.

“I just don’t think people will go to a polling location wearing face masks,” she said. “I’d like to see all voting by mail this year. Even though it’s a strain (on elections offices), nobody gets sick because of it.”

Other issues addressed during Monday’s meeting include:

Rep. Steven Harris, R-Meridian, proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow the Legislature to call itself into session, upon written request by a majority of members in the House and Senate.

Harris noted that legislative bodies in 36 states have the constitutional and statutory authority to call themselves into session. Idaho is one of the 14 states where that isn’t allowed.

That’s been a point of contention for years, but the issue never secured the two-thirds support needed to submit a constitutional amendment to voters.

It may be a different story this year, though, as lawmakers become increasingly frustrated with what some view as the governor’s “unilateral” actions on the coronavirus.

These new legislative working groups, for example, were created shortly after a small group of Republican lawmakers tried to call themselves into special session. Their primary focus, according to Republican leaders, is to “ensure that the people of Idaho have a say, through their duly-elected senators and representatives, in how the state is run during trying times.”

Some lawmakers did raise concerns, however, that Harris’ proposal doesn’t put any restrictions on the length or scope of any special session.

“I like the concept,” Souza said. “But I can imagine people in northern Idaho yelling into their microphones right now, saying, ‘We don’t want a year-round Legislature.’ ”

Rep. Jason Monks, R-Nampa, offered two draft bills that would limit the governor’s emergency powers.

One bill clarifies that, while a governor could suspend rules during an emergency declaration, he or she could not suspend any laws.

The second states that, if the Legislature isn’t in session when an emergency declaration is issued, lawmakers would have to be called back into session within 15 days. The intent of the bill is that, while any emergency orders would still take effect immediately, lawmakers could weigh in on the governor’s actions.

During a news conference Monday afternoon, Democratic leaders questions the need for a special session, as well as the value of these new legislative working groups.

“We’re concerned that too much of the focus of these legislative working groups is on vying for power and grandstanding,” said House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise. “This is not the time for a power play.”

If a special session is convened, Rubel said, it should focus on the health and safety of Idaho citizens, including providing more resources for coronavirus testing and emergency child care services so Idaho parents can return to work.

The caucus also wants the Legislature to tap rainy day funds and a tax relief fund to offset a 5 percent reduction in this year’s public education budget that Little ordered in response to anticipated coronavirus-related revenue shortfalls.

Rubel noted that the budget cut would reverse long-promised raises for veteran teachers — at a time when they’re being asked to do even more, in a more dangerous environment.

“They should be getting hazadous duty pay,” she said. “I can’t understate how profound the assurances were that (the pay raises) would be realized. Going back on those promises is really upsetting to me.”

The next meeting of the State Affairs Working Group is Aug. 10. A second working group dealing with education issues — including giving school districts more flexibility in handling any budget reductions — will meet today at 9 a.m. PDT. A third group meets next week to consider possible coronavirus liability protections for businesses and agencies.

William L. Spence may be contacted at bspence@lmtribune.com or (208) 791-9168.