Idaho
No tampering in Idaho’s election: State, federal officials discuss November election security • Idaho Capital Sun
Idaho officials are taking steps to strengthen the state’s election security.
At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane met with federal officials from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, or CISA, at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise to highlight the partnership between the two agencies.
Established in 2018, CISA is the country’s newest federal agency. It was established after Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, which led to election infrastructure being designated as critical infrastructure, CISA director Jen Easterly said at the conference.
“We’re America’s cyber defense agency, and we’re the national coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience,” Easterly said. “We protect and defend the systems that Americans rely on every hour of every day, for health care, water, power, transportation, communication, and those systems that Americans use to cast their ballots and to ensure that those ballots are counted.”
While elections are not run by the federal government, CISA serves to provide state and local governments with cybersecurity support ahead of elections with no cost cybersecurity assessments and training.
“We’ve done a lot of work over the last 20 years — but in particular over the last four years — to continue to build the infrastructure of the system that we have so that Idahoans, when they head to the polls, can have absolute confidence that their vote will count and that nobody is tampering with the systems that we have here in our state,” McGrane said.
Foreign interference is a top concern for election officials
A major concern for U.S. officials is the potential for election interference by foreign adversaries from Iran, Russia and China.
“We know (they) are very intent on doing two things: undermining American confidence in the security of our election and in our democracy, and trying to stoke partisan rancor and discord,” Easterly said.
There have been no specific attempts from foreign groups to interfere in Idaho elections, McGrane said, adding that one of the country’s greatest strengths is its diffuse election system that makes every state conduct its own elections.
Another key security feature of the nation’s election system is that the systems used by Americans to cast their votes are not connected to the internet, Easterly said.
“I have high, high, high confidence that actors would not be able to hack into election infrastructure to change votes,” she said. “I do not think that that is a real threat at all, but I think we have to recognize that our foreign adversaries may attempt to make Americans believe that.”
Easterly said she recognizes there is skepticism about the security of U.S. elections, and she encourages skeptics to get more involved by becoming poll workers or connecting with local election officials.
“It really will take all of us to protect and preserve our democracy from very serious foreign adversaries,” she said.
Rural Idaho face greater election challenges with limited resources
In addition to foreign involvement, risks to Idahoans casting their vote are faced by those mostly in rural communities, McGrane said.
Idaho GOP says more than a dozen ‘vote no on Prop 1’ signs vandalized
Wildfires, power outages, limited cell service and even the absence of one information technology worker can hinder a rural county’s election efficiency. By working with CISA, McGrane said he hopes to provide more resources to those areas.
Other risks to Idaho elections include the possibility of active shootings and the rise of political violence, McGrane said.
“I think a perfect example of that locally is the damage to yard signs,” McGrane said.
This week, the Idaho Republican Party said more than a dozen signs in opposition to the Proposition 1 ballot initiative had been vandalized.
“The vandalism – it feels small, but as things escalate, as the political tensions rise, both nationally and locally, I think one of the things we all need to be mindful of is that an important part of our democratic process is having a voice at the ballot box,” McGrane said.
Gov. Brad Little has signed House Bill 533, which would remove the need for license plate stickers on Idaho vehicles.
The legislation, introduced earlier this session by Rep. Jon Weber (R) of Boise, eliminates the requirement for registration stickers on Idaho license plates. Weber stated during the bills intorduction that officers can verify the status of license plates without the stickers, potentially saving the state around $300,000.
During the bill’s introduction, some lawmakers argued that it could increase the workload for law enforcement.
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The new law is set to take effect in July.
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.
Copyright 2026 Boise State Public Radio
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
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