Idaho
Idaho bill restricting who could apply for absentee ballots sent out for possible amendments • Idaho Capital Sun
A bill that would place restrictions on who could apply for an absentee ballot in Idaho was sent out for possible amendments Wednesday after members of the public and several state and county elections officials came out against the bill.
Sponsored by Rep. Mike Kingsley, R-Lewiston, House Bill 667 would make several changes to absentee voting.
Under the bill, a voter would only be able to request an absentee ballot if they were unable to vote in-person on Election Day or on all the other early voting days if the voter “anticipated being out of the jurisdiction on such days” or the voter “has an illness or another disability that would prevent the elector from voting in person on such days.”
Currently, Idaho voters can request an absentee ballot for any reason, which is sometimes called no excuse absentee voting.
Absentee voting in Idaho elections
Absentee voting is popular in Idaho. For example, in the 2022 general election, 129,210 Idahoans voted by absentee ballot, according to the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office. That’s about 22% of all ballots cast in the 2022 general election.
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House Bill 667 would also prohibit political parties and other organizations from mailing absentee ballot request forms to voters. Under the bill, only a voter could request that an absentee ballot form be mailed to them. The bill would also block political parties and other organizations from filling out absentee ballot forms for a voter.
Kingsley said he included that language in the bill because a partially completed absentee ballot request form for his daughter arrived at his house even though Kingsley said she hadn’t lived there in six years.
“I was tempted to sign it to see if I could get a ballot, but that’s illegal, so I didn’t think that was a good thing to do,” Kingsley said during Wednesday’s public hearing on the bill. “But I can sure see the temptation for people to do that.”
Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane, Valley County Clerk Douglas Miller, Ada County Clerk Trent Tripple and Idaho County Clerk Kathy Ackerman all testified in opposition to the bill Wednesday.
Tripple told the House State Affairs Committee he opposes the bill specifically because it would eliminate no excuse absentee voting.
“It’s disheartening to see that,” Tripple told legislators. “Clerks across the state for the last several years have worked tirelessly to make sure that we are managing who can vote and who has voted. This on top of that, on determining how they get to vote, would create a whole lot of workload for clerks. It would create confusion for us. It would also create confusion for voters.”
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The elections laws in Idaho are the envy of the rest of the nation, Tripple added.
“The no excuse absentee, partnered with early voting and robust Election Day voting with same-day registration is something everyone else wants,” Tripple said. “This chips away at that, and I think it’s probably not good for the citizens of Ada County, as well as the citizens of Idaho.”
Others who testified Wednesday said the bill would add limitations to voting and could omit people like farmers, people who live in remote locations far from a polling location, elderly voters who are not ill or disabled, people who lack transportation and people who want to send more time reading their ballots and conducting research from the comfort of home.
Despite public opposition, Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, tried to advance the bill to the floor of the Idaho House of Representatives with a recommendation to pass it.
“We’ve definitely conflated the idea that the right to vote somehow now has become an affirmative governmental requirement to make sure that everyone gets to vote,” Barbieri said during Wednesday’s meeting of the House State Affairs Committee. “And I think the availability of voting is an important right. But when we start making it the government’s responsibility, I think it’s kind of changed things over a little bit. We want to make sure that they’re secure. We want to make sure that they are available. We want to make sure that we can do so in a safe and fraud-free way. And to make the government suddenly required to assure that everyone gets to vote – not can vote – but gets to vote, I think we have kind of overstepped the bounds.”
But in the end, the House State Affairs Committee voted to send the bill out for amendments.
Amending bills can often be an unpredictable process that is difficult to follow. Once a bill is sent out for amendments, any legislator can propose any amendment for any reason – whether or not the proposed amendment has anything to do with the original bill.
Sending House Bill 667 out for amendments blocked advancing it to the House floor for a vote in its current form.
Idaho
Idaho resolution opposing same-sex marriage advances
For the second year in a row, House lawmakers will consider urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
The nonbinding resolution, which carries no legal weight, says the decision in Obergefel v. Hodges violates the longstanding religious definition of marriage between one man and one woman.
“The current definition of marriage that allows for same-sex marriages is a defilement of the word marriage,” said Rep. Tony Wisniewski (R-Post Falls), who sponsors the measure.
The resolution further states that the Obergefel decision “arbitrarily and unjustly” rejects the historical definition of marriage.
Idaho voters passed a constitution amendment in 2006 that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, which was invalidated by the Obergefel ruling.
Wisniewski said regulating marriages should be a power left to the states.
Rep. Brent Crane (R-Nampa) agrees.
“If you want to get things … closer to the people with respect to some of these more complex social issues, I think the best place for those things to happen is in the states,” Crane said.
Doing so is a risk, he said.
“You may have states that choose to acknowledge [polyamorous relationships]. You may have states that choose to have relationships between adults and younger children,” Crane said.
Cities in neighboring Oregon and Washington, for example, are considering giving those in polyamorous relationships legal recognition.
But he said that risk is worth it to allow other states that choose to only recognize traditional marriages.
Four lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee opposed the resolution.
Rep. Erin Bingham (R-Idaho Falls) said she’s tried to balance her own religious beliefs with those of others while considering the measure.
“I do feel like that it is important for us to work together, to find ways to compromise and to live together in peace and mutual respect,” Bingham said.
The resolution now goes to the House floor for consideration.
House lawmakers last year passed a similar measure, but it never received a hearing in a Senate committee.
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Idaho
University of Idaho professor awarded $10M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders
A University of Idaho professor won a $10 million judgment after a tarot TikTok influencer publicly pushed false claims that she was behind the savage quadruple slayings of four college students.
A Boise jury in US District Court ordered fortune-telling Texas TikToker Ashley Guillard on Friday to pay $10 million after concluding she falsely accused professor Rebecca Scofield of having a secret romance with one of the four victims and orchestrating their killings, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Following the verdict, Scofield thanked the jury and said she hopes the case sends a clear warning that making “false statements online have consequences in the real world.”
“The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, were the darkest chapter in our university’s history,” Scofield told Fox News.
“Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies. I am hopeful that this difficult chapter in my life is over, and I can return to a more normal life with my family and the wonderful Moscow community.”
Scofield, the university’s history department chair, filed the lawsuit in December 2022 — just weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.
Guillard began uploading videos to her more than 100,000 TikTok followers in late November 2022, accusing Scofield of a secret relationship with one of the students and claiming she had “ordered” the killings, garnering millions of views across the social media platform.
The complaint states that Scofield had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.
Even after being served with cease-and-desist letters and after police publicly confirmed Scofield had no connection to the murders, the Houston-based tarot reader continued posting videos, the history professor’s legal team argued.
Guillard doubled down on her accusations against Scofield after being sued, posting a defiant video saying, “I am not stopping,” and challenging why Scofield needed three lawyers to sue her “if she’s so innocent.”
The professor’s legal team argued the defamatory accusations painted her as a criminal and accused her of professional misconduct that could derail her career.
Bryan Kohberger, then studying criminology at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the quadruple murders in a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences in Idaho.
In June 2024, Chief US Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco found Guillard’s statements legally defamatory, leaving damages to be decided by a jury.
During the damages trial, Scofield described the anguish of seeing her name tied to the murders online, the Idaho Statesman reported.
However, Guillard, acting as her own attorney, insisted her comments were simply beliefs based on tarot card readings.
She claimed to have psychic powers and testified that she relied on tarot cards to try to solve the shocking homicides that shook the rural college town and sparked global attention.
It took jurors less than two hours to return their verdict, the outlet reported.
The jury awarded Scofield $7.5 million in punitive damages in addition to $2.5 million in compensatory damages.
With Post wires
Idaho
Gas prices expected to exceed $3 as the Iran conflict prompts supply shortages
BOISE, Idaho — AAA is warning Idaho gas consumers that pump prices will likely rise as the conflict in Iran disrupts oil and gas supply chains worldwide.
The ongoing turmoil in the Middle East will likely push the price for a gallon of regular gasoline past the $3 mark over the coming days.
“On one hand, the crude oil market had time to account for some financial risk in the Middle East as forces mobilized, but a supply shortage somewhere affects the global picture,” says AAA Idaho public affairs director Matthew Conde. “If tankers can’t move products through the region, there could be ripple effects.”
On Monday, March 2, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline is $2.97, reports AAA, which is 12 cents more expensive than it was a month ago but 20 cents less than this time last year.
State / Price: 1 gallon of regular gasoline
- Washington / $4.37
- Oregon / $3.92
- Nevada / $3.70
- Idaho / $2.97
- Colorado / $2.89
- Montana / $2.82
- Utah / $2.74
- Wyoming / $2.73
In terms of the most expensive fuel in the nation, Idaho currently ranks #14. However, buying a gallon of regular gas in neighboring states such as Oregon and Washington could cost a whole dollar more. In contrast, gas prices in Utah, Montana, and Wyoming are anywhere between 15 to 24 cents cheaper than fuel in the Gem State.
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