Secretary of State gives update on early voter registration

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — With election day just two weeks away, the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office said it has seen a surge in people preparing to cast their ballot.

Over the past few months, the Secretary of State has encouraged potential voters to register before the election and update their registration if it has changed.

Now that pre-registration has ended, the public is learning which group saw the most significant surge in numbers.

“Our teams really been digging into the data to see what they can find,” Secretary of State Phil McGrane said. “The biggest block of people who registered in advance of this election were under 45 years old. Even a slightly larger uptick under 30 years old. Really that’s a reflection more than anything that there are more people not quite registered at this point when they’re younger most of our 75 and up or 60 and up have already registered and are participating.”

If you pre-register and still want to request an absentee ballot for this election, you need to know about an important deadline.

“Oct. 25 is the last day to request an absentee ballot,” McGrane said. “That ensures there’s enough time to mail it to the voter and to get it back. As we get close to election day, I really want to encourage anybody to get that absentee ballot in, it does take time to go through the postal service.”

McGrane said his office works with the postal service to get mail quickly.

If it is getting close to election day, you can drop your absentee ballot off at your office. If you missed the pre-registration deadline, you can still register the same day to vote in person.