Secretary of state to revisit ballot policy after Ketchum election lawsuit withdrawal
Former Ketchum City Council candidate Perry Boyle on Monday, Dec. 22, withdrew his lawsuit accusing the Blaine County Clerk’s Office, which oversees county elections, of improperly rotating candidate names on ballots and placing him at a disadvantage in November’s City Council election.
In one of Ketchum’s two voting precincts in November, Boyle’s name appeared first in the list of candidates. In the other precinct, it was rotated to the end, placing his name alone in a separate column from the other candidates. Boyle lost the election by 28 votes.
The stated goal of the ballot rotation rules issued by the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office, which is in charge of administering elections statewide, is to allow each candidate “to appear first on the list of candidates an approximately equal number of times across different ballot styles or election districts.”
The office in November stated that Blaine County implemented ballot rotation correctly. Only two versions of the Ketchum ballot existed because Ketchum only has two precincts.
https://www.mtexpress.com/news/ketchum/secretary-of-state-to-revisit-ballot-policy-after-ketchum-election-lawsuit-withdrawal/article_73e188eb-a3f3-4b7e-abb5-0cc41c76a573.html