Two new faces are competing for Blaine County Sheriff's Office

COUNTY WEST, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — As voters prepare to head to the polls to elect a president next month-- there are local offices on the ballot to pay close attention to especially in Blaine County. KMVT spoke with both candidates to ask what made them qualify for the position. Here was their response:

“I have two decades of leadership and administrative experience,” said Democrat candidate, Morgan Ballis.

“I’ve lived in the Valley for 20 years, I have a decade and a half of law enforcement experience,” said Republican candidate, Aaron Hughston.

The Blaine County Sheriff contest is a two-horse race. Morgan Ballis currently works for the Hailey Police Department as a patrol officer, while also serving as a School Resource Officer for the Blaine County School District.

The former U.S. Marine says he believes that running for sheriff is a unique opportunity to police in a different way.

“I believe sheriff plays a role in not just supporting our officers to respond better and faster, but also to respond less and the way we do that is by addressing the underlying factors of crime, substance use, mental health, suicides,” said Ballis.

To that end, Ballis says he’s worked with several non-profit organizations including The Advocates, The Alliance of Idaho, and 5B Suicide Prevention Alliance.

On the other side of the coin--republican Aaron Hughston is a former level one reserved deputy for the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office and the Elmore County Sheriff’s Office. He currently is a local business owner in Sunvalley.

Hughston says as sheriff-- he will work to open up dialogue within the community about mental health and substance abuse issues in hopes of making the county a safer place for everyone.

“We need to do a better job of removing that stigmatism from seeking help. We also need to train our deputies, our sergeants, our command staff to identify when those individuals need assistance,” said Hughston.

Both candidates also have goals to increase the number of law enforcement volunteers, easing the burden on patrol officers. Ballis says he plans to do this by improving inner agency collaborations with the sheriff’s office and the local police departments-- especially when it comes to drugs.

“It should be a one team one fight mentality,” said Ballis. “I am going to expand the narcotics enforcement team to have representation from every single agency so that we can better collaborate and fight against drugs that are coming into our community.”

As for Hughston-- he suggests doing this by getting the law enforcement more involved with the community.

“If we had community orientated policing, if we have neighborhood watch programs-- that’s an open line of communication, there’s open dialogue and that’s so important to have that back and forth, and transparency,” said Hughston.

Six other sheriff’s offices are up for election in Twin Falls, Lincoln, Jerome, Cassia, Minidoka and Gooding County. However, all of those candidates are running unopposed.

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