Idaho certifies the results of the 2024 general election and begins the Electoral College process

The Idaho State Board of Canvassers voted unanimously to certify Idaho’s 2024 general election results Tuesday at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise.

The Idaho State Board of Canvassers has officially approved the results of the Nov. 5 election after determining that none of the election results changed following precinct certifications and a random audit of ballots in eight Idaho counties.

Aside from none of the results changing, none of Idaho’s races were within the 0.5 percent margin eligible for a free recount, Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane said.

“I’ve been involved in elections for a long time,” McGrane said during Tuesday’s meeting of the Idaho State Board of Canvassers. “This was truly one of the smoothest elections I’ve ever been a part of – from election preparation to voting – and I think it’s really an honor for so many different people that we were able to hold an election like this. I think the preparation and the very, very collaborative relationship that we have with the counties and the district offices has been just great.”

The Idaho State Board of Canvassers consists of McGrane, Idaho State Treasurer Julie Ellsworth and Idaho State Controller Brandon Woolf.

Tuesday’s vote to certify Idaho’s election results also makes the 2024 general election the largest election in the state’s history in terms of the number of voters who cast their ballots. Official figures released following the poll show 917,469 voters cast their ballots, surpassing the previous record of 878,527 from the 2020 general election.

Idaho law allows voters to register to vote and vote on Election Day. The final, official results of the 2024 general election showed that there were 121,015 same-day registrations on election day.

The number of same-day voter registrations was so large this year that if all 121,015 voters who participated in same-day voter registration had formed a new city, it would have been the third largest city in Idaho, right between Meridian and Nampa.

Voter turnout in the 2024 general election was 77.8%, lower than the record turnout of 81.2% in the 2020 general election.

The vote to certify the election results in Idaho on Tuesday helps set the stage for the Electoral College process that officially votes for the president and vice president of the United States.

“The purpose of today’s meeting is actually to confirm the results as official,” McGrane said. “So up until this point, all results for Idaho State were unofficial. This includes everything from the presidential election to federal elections to state elections.”

Now that Idaho’s election results are official, state officials will send the results to Washington, D.C., McGrane said.

Then, on December 17, Idaho voters will officially cast their votes in the Electoral College for President-elect Donald Trump.

Idaho has four electoral votes — one for each of its members in the U.S. House and Senate — and all four of Idaho’s electoral votes go to Trump.

On Nov. 15, the Idaho State Board of Canvassers selected eight random Idaho counties for consideration, the Sun previously reported. The counties selected were Latah, Bingham, Elmore, Bear Lake, Custer, Minidoka, Clearwater and Jerome.

On Tuesday, Deputy Secretary of State Nicole Fitzgerald said audit results in Bingham and Minidoka counties were fully consistent with unofficial election results. However, the audit uncovered small discrepancies, errors by poll workers, errors in manual counting, labeling or organizational errors in six of the counties audited. None of the discrepancies – the largest of which involved 12 ballots in Elmore County – were large enough to change the outcome of either election, McGrane said during the Idaho State Board of Canvassers meeting and again during a follow-up interview with the Sun.

In Bear Lake County, for example, Sen. Mark Harris, R-Soda Springs, lost one vote in the audit, while his Democratic challenger Chris Riley gained one vote in the audit. Election officials on Tuesday attributed the difference to an error in manual counting on election night in Bear Lake County. The error did not change the result. Final election results show Harris defeated Riley by a margin of 20,907 votes to 6,062.

In Custer County, Republican Sen.-elect Christy Zito lost one vote in the audit and her Democratic challenger David Hoag gained one vote due to what Fitzgerald called a hand-counting error on election night. This difference also did not change the result. The final election results show Zito won 17,750 votes to 6,859.

In Elmore County, the audit was off by 12 ballots. Fitzgerald said 2,183 ballots were reported in the five Elmore County counties selected for audit. But auditors only counted 2,171 ballots during the audit, Fitzgerald said.

The 12-vote discrepancy was likely due to problems and inconsistencies with the Resolution Board process on election night, Fitzgerald said. The Resolution Committee comes into play when a ballot is rejected due to a problem such as damage, stains, tears, or some other issue other than being unreadable by the voting machines and the Resolution Committee is called in to take a look at the ballot and determine the voter’s intent .

“What appears to have happened is that these ballots just weren’t labeled or organized very carefully on election night,” Fitzgerald said during Tuesday’s meeting. “It was really difficult for our audit team to determine which ballots were included in the audit count.”

After Tuesday’s meeting to certify the election results, McGrane told the Sun that some of the notes and records related to Elmore County’s resolution board process were handwritten and not printed.

McGrane told the Sun he believes all votes were properly counted and the problem was due to organization and record-keeping, not a lack of certainty about which ballots should be included in the audit count, which is one was a partial audit of Elmore County and the seven other counties, not a full audit.

McGrane and Fitzgerald said they don’t believe a full audit is necessary in Elmore County, but said state election officials will discuss the discrepancies with Elmore County election officials.

“We go there and meet with them so we can identify opportunities for process improvement,” Fitzgerald said.

The 12-vote discrepancy would not have changed the outcome of an election in Elmore County. The closest race involving Elmore County was a District 8 Idaho House race in which Rep.-elect Faye Thompson defeated her closest rival, Democrat Jared Dawson, by more than 9,800 votes in an election that included three other counties took part, won. In the 2024 general election, all but one county-level election in Elmore County was uncontested.