With over 914K ballots cast, Idaho broke voting records in 2024 general election, initial data show

A voter walks to the booths to cast her ballot in the general election on Nov. 5, 2024, at Longfellow Elementary School in Boise. (Pat Sutphin for the Idaho Capital Sun)

Idaho voters turned out to the polls at record numbers for the November 2024 general election, initial voter turnout data show.

A record 914,302 Idahoans voted in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial voter turnout data from the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office, from 3:59 p.m. Wednesday. Idaho had 1,069,763 registered voters this year.

Meanwhile, Idaho reported an 85.5% voter turnout rate this year. By Wednesday morning, it was unclear if that breaks the voter turnout rate record, since ballots were still being counted and election officials were working to verify same-day voter registration figures, Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane told the Idaho Capital Sun in an interview. 

But McGrane said breaking the voter turnout rate was unlikely. Idaho election officials had expected the state this year to break the record for the number of ballots cast, he said. 

But Idaho’s voter turnout rate appeared on par with this century’s past presidential elections, where voters tend to participate at higher rates. 

Since 2000, Idaho’s average voter turnout rate for presidential elections was 76%, the Idaho Capital Sun found in a review of past election results reported by the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office. That figure doesn’t factor in the 2024 turnout rate.

And as a higher share of Idaho voters voted early in-person, rather than mail-in absentee, election officials are in talks about expanding early voting options, McGrane said.

The presidential race has historically been a key factor in boosting turnout, but other factors may have played a role, like Idaho’s ballot measures up for votes this year and get-out-the-vote activities by candidates, Boise State University political scientist Jaclyn Kettler told the Sun in an interview Wednesday.

In 2024, 67,1% of Idaho voters supported former president Donald Trump, who secured a second term as U.S. president. In 2016, Trump received 59% of Idaho’s votes. In 2020, Trump received 64% of Idaho’s votes.

Tuesday’s election results are unofficial until certified by the State Board of Canvassers, which is scheduled to meet Nov. 26 in the Idaho State Capitol Building in Boise.

In 2020, Idaho voters turned out at a record-setting rate of 81.2%. This year, Idaho broke the record for the number of ballots cast. That record was last set in 2020, when 878,527 Idaho ballots were cast.  

This year, Idaho also set another voter turnout record: More voters cast in-person early votes than mail-in absentee votes, McGrane told the Sun. Amid the increased interest, local election officials are considering expanding early voting options in future elections, he said.

“It just shows a broader acceptance of in-person early voting,” McGrane said, adding that there were lines at many early voting locations. “For clerks, there will be a lot more conversation about considering expanding that, because people seem to appreciate it and be taking advantage of it. They have the convenience, but also still have the same voting experience like they were headed to the polls on Election Day.”

This year, Idahoans cast 218,586 early votes, compared to 173,317 absentee votes, data from the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office show; 90% of absentee ballots were returned.

Early votes are in person, before Election Day. Absentee voting are mail-in ballots, which are due to election offices before polls close on Election Day.

Part of what contributed to more voters voting before Election Day was convenience — and assurances from political parties and candidates, Kettler told the Sun.

“Once voters vote in one of those ways, they often like it and find it really convenient and continue to do so,” she said. “I think there’s also more encouragement from different parties and candidates, encouraging people to consider voting either early or through absentee ballot. So that may have also helped more people feel comfortable or confident that their vote would be accurately counted.”

The Idaho Statesman reported that dozens of voters in Ada County struggled to register to vote at the polls on Election Day due to a new Idaho law that requires state drivers’ licenses or other official Idaho, federal or tribal ID cards, but disallows student ID cards. 

McGrane said his office did assist a number of voters, and that his office doesn’t track the number of voters turned away for not having proper identification. But McGrane questioned the Statesman’s reporting, saying it contained “anecdotal examples” and adding that Idaho didn’t see a “noteable difference” in Election Day voter registration figures compared to before the law was passed. 

Over 100,000 Idahoans registered to vote the day of the election, McGrane said. 

In every general election since 2000, except the 2024 election, an average of 80,304 Idahoans registered to vote on Election Day, the Idaho Capital Sun found in a review of past election data reported by the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office. Same-day registrations peaked in 2016, when 131,455 Idahoans registered to vote on Election Day.

While Ada County Clerk Trent Tripple worked the line on the last day of early voting, he turned away at least 10 to 15 people who didn’t have the identification required, he told the Sun in an interview Wednesday. And he said he heard similar reports from Ada County election workers who worked voting lines on Election Day. 

The issue seemed to disproportionately affect seniors, he told the Sun.

Many of the people Tripple turned away were people who had recently moved to Idaho from another state, who had proof they’d lived in Idaho long enough to vote in the state and could show driver’s licenses from other states, like Oregon, California and Montana, or even birth certificates or past voter registration cards, Tripple told the Sun.

But Tripple said he’d tell them, “‘I’m sorry. Unless you have a U.S. passport or a federal ID or a tribal card or concealed weapons, (license) you cannot register to vote here.’ And it just seemed in the moments when I was doing that, it didn’t feel right. You know, here I am turning away someone who can sit there and prove their citizenship on the spot … (and) show me they live here and have a valid ID from another state.”

Tripple told the Sun he appreciated the new law’s efforts “to simplify and standardize” ID forms for registration and voting, but he felt it “went too far, and it did disenfranchise some voters.”

“I’m not saying anyone is intentionally trying to suppress the vote or prevent people from voting,” Tripple told the Sun. “I just don’t think it was thought out well enough — the impact of the current Idaho driver’s license being the only form of local ID that you could get to be able to vote.”

“With the large number of people that were able to register to vote, it may not seem like a whole lot. But, over a size of a county like Ada County, that’s, you know, not an insignificant number,” he told the Sun. “We’ve had elections that have been determined by four or less votes.”

In the 2024 general election, voter turnout was high across Idaho’s 44 counties, which had an average voter turnout rate of 86.3%. (That number is the voter turnout rate for each county, divided by the number of Idaho counties. Idaho’s statewide voter turnout rate, 85.5%, accounts for the total number of Idaho registered voters who cast ballots in the 2024 general election.)

Voter turnout this year was lowest in Blaine County in central Idaho, home to more than 24,000 people and the city of Hailey, where only 67% of the county’s 15,685 registered voters cast ballots. About 61.7% of Blaine County voters voted for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, one of two Idaho counties where a majority of voters supported Harris, according to early election results. 

Voter turnout was highest in Minidoka County in central Idaho, home to more than 21,000 people and the city of Rupert, where 96.8% of the county’s 8,299 registered voters cast ballots. 

In Ada County, Idaho’s most populated and home to Boise, 83.5% of 324,704 registered voters cast ballots, along with 85.4% of 119,889 registered voters in nearby Canyon County, home to Nampa.

In the 2024 general election, Idaho had 1,069,763 registered voters. That’s down over 12,000 from 2020, when Idaho had 1,082,417 registered voters. 

Republicans make up 59% of Idaho registered voters, or more than 630,539 people, according to the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office. Unaffiliated voters make up 27% or more than 283,913 of Idaho’s registered voters. Democrats comprise 13% of Idaho registered voters, or 136,057.