Idaho made strides by emphasizing voting rights within other institutional mechanisms
EDITOR'S NOTE: This page is part of a comprehensive guide to voting rights across the U.S. and in Puerto Rico.
With complex storylines dating back to the days before statehood, the history of voting in Idaho is defined by a historical back-and-forth that has gradually given way to a freer society. Black men only earned a nominal claim to the right to vote in the then-territory in 1870, a year after the ratification of the 15th Amendment.
Even then, lawmakers sought to restrict the state's elections from what they viewed as interference. When its Constitution was first approved in 1890, universal voting for men was explicitly protected, with the framers proclaiming that “no power, civil or military, shall at any time interfere with or prevent (its) free and lawful exercise.”
“Free and lawful” have checkered definitions in the state history books. Indigenous men could vote but weren’t permitted to hold citizenship. But just six years later, a state constitutional amendment made Idaho only the fourth state in the country that extended suffrage to women, 24 years before the ratification of the 19th Amendment.
Especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, numerous historical instances saw Black men and women, despite having been enfranchised in 1870 and 1896, respectively, have their votes challenged in Boise precincts.
But the state continued to at least nominally guarantee voting rights for all citizens. And it made strides by emphasizing voting rights within other institutional mechanisms. In 1914, an Idaho senator was elected via the popular vote for the first time. And in 1998, adult citizens cared for by guardians were finally allowed to vote.
Republicans have fought to make casting a ballot more difficult in Idaho, to little apparent avail.
In March, two election restriction bills were both stopped by the GOP-controlled state Senate. The first, Senate Bill 1375, would have disallowed the use of student or military IDs in voting and required those registering to vote online or by mail to go to the polls in person in their first election.
Another, Senate Bill 1376, would have imposed restrictions on who could drop off absentee ballots on behalf of certain voters and restricted the number of ballots that could be turned in by a specific person at one time. Anyone submitting 20 or more ballots in addition to their own at one time could be charged with a felony.
The measures were backed by Republican secretary of state candidate and state Sen. Mary Souza, who acknowledged that there was no historical basis for their implementation. Souza finished a distant third in the Republican primary for secretary of state, capturing under 16% of the vote in an election held in May. Idaho has no real recent history of substantive voter fraud. Idaho County Clerk Kathy Ackerman fought against the measures at the Legislature.
“The message here seems to be, we don’t trust Idaho voters, and we don’t trust them so much that we’re going to send someone to their house,” she said at the time, according to Spokane Public Radio.
Gregory Svirnovskiy is a Pulliam Fellow at The Arizona Republic. You can follow him on Twitter @gsvirnovskiy or reach him by email at gregory.svirnovskiy@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Idaho's voting rights history defined by historical back-and-forth
