BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Impatient with the Idaho Legislature's refusal to allow voters to permanently sign up for an absentee ballot, a group led by a former Democratic congressional candidate hopes is hoping to win support for a citizen initiative come November 2012.
Most Idaho residents now must register every year with their county clerk if they want to vote by mail. Those serving overseas in the military must register to vote absentee every four years.
Larry Grant, who ran for Congress in 2006, wants to allow people to register just once to vote absentee, something he says will make it more convenient for voters who are increasingly favoring absentee ballots to make themselves heard.
Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa's office has supported similar legislative efforts and sponsored an unsuccessful measure in the 2008 Legislature.
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For years, county clerks from across Idaho have promoted permanent absentee voting. They've been stymied by Republican majority lawmakers who fear straying too far from casting a ballot in person at a polling station opens the system to potential fraud.
Grant and Ysursa's office say those fears are unfounded.
"We hope to simply making it easier and more convenient for those people who need to use an absentee ballot to do it," Grant told The Associated Press. "It's not just for somebody who has a physical disability. This is for seniors or people who have long shifts."
His group, the nonpartisan Idaho Vote by Mail, decided it would be too difficult to meet next April's deadline to collect more than 52,000 signatures of registered voters to get the initiative on the November 2010 ballot. The 2012 goal will be easier to meet, he said.
Grant, who lost to former U.S. Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, in 2006, says his group plans to rely solely on volunteers to gather signatures.
"I'm not a big fan of paid persons in this kind of situation," he said.
Tim Hurst, Ysursa's top deputy at the secretary of state's office, said the office has consistently supported county clerks in trying to secure permanent absentee ballots.
So far, that's failed, as did a short-lived push in the 2007 Legislature for an even more expansive "vote-by-mail" plan similar to neighboring Oregon's. That passed the House State Affairs Committee before House Speaker Lawerence Denney, R-Midvale, and Rep. Tom Loertscher, R-Bone, combined to kill it.
About a third of the 653,000 Idaho voters in 2008 cast absentee ballots. Hurst said isolated allegations of election fraud during last November's election were never validated.
"If it's going to help the voter, we think it's a good idea," he said. "We have to balance that with maintaining the integrity of the election process. I don't see the conflict there, because of all the other safeguards that are in place."
Denney, however, said he's still not convinced.
Foes fear not only fraud, but also that the proliferation of absentee ballots has extended the traditional two-week flurry of campaign activity to protracted odysseys favoring well-funded or wealthy candidates. For instance, U.S. Rep. Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, beat Sali last November after spending more than $640,000 of his own money.
"I would still be pretty skeptical about a permanent absentee ballot," Denney told the AP. "This last election we had some concerns with same-day registration. I think there's some concerns about fraud."