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.
BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — Idaho is seeing more money, and more out-of-state money in lobbying than it likely ever has.
Secretary of State Phil McGrane told attendees at the Annual Associated Taxpayers of Idaho Conference Wednesday that more than $2.5 million was spent on lobbying in 2025.
McGrane highlighted new data visualization tools available online at voteidaho.gov, including to track lobbyist spending. (See data visualizations from Idaho Secretary of State’s Office below.)
During the 2025 session, lawmakers approved changes to lobbying reporting that now require “indirect lobbying” to be reported, which would capture activity like social media or texting campaigns during the legislative session to encourage residents to support or oppose certain bills. The new bill also requires monthly reporting year-round, instead of just during the three-month legislative session. Around $700,000 has been spent on lobbying since the 2025 legislative session ended in April, McGrane said.
There are 392 registered in-state organizations that lobby in Idaho, and there are 300 out-of-state organizations registered to lobby in Idaho.
The new data visualization runs through each month of 2025, as the lobbying money gets spent. The state legislative session this year ran January through April 4. By the end of the year, the top spender was Modern Ag Alliance, based out of St. Louis, Missouri. The group spent over $620,000 lobbying on one bill, House Bill 303, which would have largely granted legal immunity to pesticide manufacturers. The bill never advanced out of the committee.
“Most of the spending comes right at the end of February into March,” McGrane said Wednesday. “So in the heat of the session is when money starts to really trickle in. It starts off slow, and then comes in strong.”
The second-highest spender of the year was the American Federation for Children, a Washington D.C.-based organization that advocates for public subsidies for private school education. The entity has spent more than $200,000 in Idaho, with a large focus on House Bill 93 — a private school choice tax credit that provides a total of $50 million for families to go toward private school tuition or other educational expenses. The governor signed HB 93 into law on Feb. 27.
There are around 400 lobbyists registered in Idaho, McGrane said.
“For all of you legislators, that means there’s four of them for each one of you,” he said.
The second new data visualization dashboard available online depicts the close legislative races the state has seen since 2018. All 105 seats in the Legislature are up for election every two years.
There have been 49 legislative primary races decided by 435 — the number of attendees registered for Wednesday’s conference — or fewer votes since 2018.
“Fifty races were determined by just the people here,” McGrane said. “So if we can get more people to participate, more people to show up, they can have a big impact.”
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.
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SOUTH BOISE, Idaho — The Idaho Department of Correction is taking a closer look at sexual safety inside its prisons at the request of Governor Brad Little, following allegations from a former inmate who says she endured years of sexual abuse by correctional officers.
Andrea Weiskircher, who spent 20 years incarcerated in Idaho, told Idaho News 6 that abuse became so common she no longer recognized how wrong it was.
“I came to prison when I was 19. I’m 43 now. So I’ve done 20 years… There’s a lot of things that go on in the prison that shouldn’t happen,” Weiskircher said.
WATCH: How one woman’s claims pushed IDOC to re-examine its policies on sexual misconduct
Former Idaho inmate says staff sexual abuse was ignored as IDOC reviews safety policies
Weiskircher wrote multiple letters to Idaho News 6 detailing her allegations, prompting renewed attention on how sexual misconduct reports are handled behind bars. This week, she returned to the prison complex for the first time since her release to attend an IDOC Board of Correction meeting on sexual safety.
“I think that I got exposed to a lot of very disturbing sexual activity inside the prison and it became like a normal mindset for me because I’d been there for so long,” she said.
In 2024, Weiskircher filed Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) reports, submitting what she describes as evidence. She said her case was marked “unfounded,” but after months of speaking out, IDOC has agreed to re-examine it.
During the board meeting – where phones and cameras were not allowed – IDOC officials outlined the department’s reporting system, which includes hotline numbers, intake screenings and mandatory PREA evaluations.
Weiskircher said the policies are not the issue. “They talked about their policy again that they don’t enforce,” she said, adding that retaliation and fear often prevent people from reporting abuse.
Department officials also acknowledged a gap in Idaho law. The current statute defining “sexual contact” only includes intercourse or genital contact – excluding other unwanted intimate acts such as groping or kissing. IDOC Direct Bree Derrick noted in the meeting, “I would think there are people who are already interested in taking this issue up and kind of closing the gap that exists there.”
According to data presented during the meeting, IDOC recorded 188 sexual-misconduct allegations in 2023 – 101 classified as sexual harassment and 87 as sexual abuse. IDOC says only 13 staff-on-resident allegations were reported, and none were substantiated.
Weiskircher said what she heard in the meeting didn’t reflect her experience. “It made me angry. They talked about their policy again that they don’t enforce… the data they just showed the board of directors was false,” she said. She believes her reports, and others she witnessed, were not captured in the numbers presented.
For her, returning to IDOC was about ensuring that future reports are taken seriously. “I’m not going to stop until it gets fixed,” she said.
IDOC says it is working with lawmakers to expand the state’s definition of sexual contact and will continue internal reviews along with required federal PREA audits.
Idaho
Local trio want you to have a ‘Parents Night Out,’ and they’ll watch your kids – East Idaho News
Do you want to know what’s happening in the eastern Idaho business scene? We’ve got you covered. Here is a rundown of this week’s business news across the valley.
BIZ BUZZ
IDAHO FALLS
Trio launching new drop-in daycare service in Idaho Falls
IDAHO FALLS – The owners of a new business want to babysit your kids while you have a night out with your significant other.
Parents Night Out Co. opens this Friday and provides drop-in childcare for parents wanting a date night on Friday and Saturday. The same service is available for weddings, corporate events or other occasions.
Owners Patrick and Nicole Marks run it out of their home at 2649 Newman Drive in Idaho Falls. They, along with their business partner, Mely Rodriguez, are hosting an open house and grand opening on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there, and raffle prizes will be available.
In a conversation with EastIdahoNews.com, the Marks say there’s a lot of interest in this service throughout the community, and they’re excited to serve families.
“We’ve been working with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to get background checks and CPR, first aid and (AED) certified,” Nicole says.
“We don’t have an official state license, as of right now,” Patrick adds, explaining that they’re currently exempt from it because there isn’t a category that fits the type of service they offer.
The Marks say they’ve been approved to move forward while the department figures out the licensing situation.
“We have everything we need to (become licensed) once we figure out what category we fall under,” says Patrick.
The Marks are the parents of four kids 8 and under. For them, finding a babysitter is always a challenge. If they find one, they say it’s always expensive.
Nicole and Rodriguez, who is also a mom, used to work together. It was Rodriguez who first pitched her the idea of a daycare service for weddings and events.
Rodriguez and the Marks joined forces, and Parents Night Out was born.
“We want it to be homey. We want kids to come and feel safe and have fun,” says Nicole.
Parents Night Out is a side hustle for the trio.
Nicole has a day job as a forklift and machine operator at the Idaho National Lab. Patrick drives a cement mixer for Central Valley Concrete Cutting & Coring, and Rodriguez works at Kenworth Sales.
They’re excited to begin operation and want to see the business grow. Eventually, they’d like to have their own building from which to operate the daycare service.
They’re inviting the community to come and meet them at the open house on Saturday.
“One of the reasons we’re having the open house is so people can see the house and meet us, ask questions and have an open dialogue,” Rodriguez says.
Drop-in daycare services are available every Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to midnight. The cost is $5 an hour per child and another $3 an hour for every additional child in the same household. Event and wedding childcare can be arranged by appointment.
To learn more, visit the website or Facebook page. You can also call (208) 810-1340.
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