While much of the nation had rushed to vote early, Idaho held back compared to other states with 402,310 ballots cast before Nov. 1.
While some counties set new early voting records, the state sat at 56.6% of the number of ballots cast in 2016 overall, while the nation reached 73.4% and some states — including Washington, Texas, Oregon, Montana and Hawaii — had exceeded their total ballots cast in 2016 just during early and absentee voting, according to the U.S. Elections Project.
Janis Helfman, of Eagle, Idaho, told the Ada Reporter that she was among those who voted early, making sure to cast a vote in every race on the ballot.
While the presidential race is important to her, Helfman said she also had concerns about the direction state-level elections could take.
“We have challenges in Idaho; we have a lot of new residents in Idaho that have come in from outlying states, and a lot of them are not particularly conservative,” Helman told the Ada Reporter. “We’re hoping that the people are coming here to escape the tyranny that they’ve been under in those states that they’re fleeing, but there’s going to be a certain percentage of them that will bring their, kind of crazy, California values here.”
While Helfman said she sees every election as necessary, this one is especially significant.
“This one is particularly consequential, based on what the other side has in mind for us, in terms of obliterating a lot of our personal freedoms, civil liberties and constitutional norms,” Helfman told the Ada Reporter.
Helfman said that respect for the constitution is one of the key things she looks for in those she votes for.
“That they’re not taking away any of our personal freedoms – that’s the most important to me,” Helfman told the Ada Reporter.
