Shoshone County General Election recap
November: A line of voters stretches out the door of the Kellogg Elks building, which served as a polling station on election day. This sight was not uncommon at other polling locations across the county.
Photo by CHANSE WATSON
WALLACE — Looking at the local voter turnout statistics, it's almost hard to believe that more than half of the local ballot featured uncontested races.
Comparisons with previous years though show that this general election had the highest turnout in more than 10 years.
With 6,125 ballots cast out of 7,920 registered voters, Shoshone County Clerk Tamie Lewis-Eberhard states that the 2020 voter turnout came in at 77%.
"The total number of registered voters on May 19, 2020, was 6,865, which indicates there were 1,095 new registrations received between May 19 through Election Day," she added.
The last time Shoshone County saw a higher level of turnout was the general election of 2008 — when it was 82.44%.
From Kingston to Mullan, lines of voters could be seen stretching out from polling stations.
With the increased participation, Lewis-Eberhard said that she and the election team stayed busy, but everyone kept their heads.
"I think it went really well," she said. "The lines were longer, but the equipment we put in place made things go a bit quicker."
In addition to the normal poll workers and express voting machines, the county also utilized the help of high school seniors from all three Silver Valley school districts to help handle the increase in voters. These seniors were responsible for everything from directing people and general cleanup, to assisting voters with the electronic voting option.
For their time, the students will receive either community service hours for their senior projects or be compensated like any other poll worker.
"We had a lot of brand new poll workers that caught on really quickly and were very helpful," Lewis-Eberhard said. "We had a few poll workers call in sick, so I really appreciate everybody who participated."
• • •
As for the actual county results, Shoshone voters largely leaned toward GOP candidates this year (when they had the option).
For President of the United States, Donald Trump (R) took the county with 4,216 votes (69.41%). Coming in second was Joseph Biden (D) with 1,693 votes (27.87%).
Also receiving votes for president were Jo Jorgensen (LIB) with 71 votes, Kanye West with 23, Brock Pierce with 22, Don Blankenship with 14, Roque De La Fuente with 10 and 25 for write-in's.
The Associated Press declared Biden as the winner of this race Saturday morning.
For the position of U.S. Senator from Idaho, Shoshone County chose incumbent Jim Risch (R) by giving him 3,904 votes (65.85%) compared to his closest challenger, Paulette Jordan (D), who received 1,747 (29.47%).
Natalie Fleming (181 votes) and Ray Writz (97) also received local consideration.
Risch would also cruise to an easy victory overall by garnering 62.4% of the vote. Jordan came in second with 33.4%.
The other contested state race on the ballot was for the position of District 1 U.S. Representative from Idaho.
Shoshone County overwhelmingly selected incumbent Russ Fulcher (R) with 3,991 votes (67.98%) over challenger Rudy Soto (D), who received 1,653 votes (28.16%).
Joe Evans (218 votes) and write-in's (9) also saw support.
Fulcher went on to beat Soto statewide as well, gathering 67.7% of the vote to 28.7%
As for state initiatives, the county approved of HJR4 with 3,185 YES votes (58.37%) to 2,272 NO votes (41.63%). HJR4 also passed on the state level with 68% of votes being in favor of it.
Locally, the only contested race that involved a Shoshone County resident was for supervisor roles in the Kootenai-Shoshone Soil & Water Conservation District.
With four positions up for grabs, Shoshone voters chose Valerie Wade (2,290 votes), Linda Ely (2,015), Wes Evans (1,907) and Stan Thornton (1,735). Bringing up the rear was John Minichino Jr. (1,547), Laurin Scarcello (1,440), Steve Van Zevern (1,143) and Birgid Niedenzu (918).
While Shoshone resident Valerie Wade won locally, her support in Kootenai County wasn't enough to get her into the top four.
With the combined vote totals from both counties, the overall winners were Evans (34,242 votes), Scarcello (34,802), Minichino Jr. (30,791) and Ely (28,454). Wade came in fifth with 27,976 votes — beating out Van Zevern with 26,163, Thornton with 24,118 and Niedenzu with 14,419.
The remaining races on the Shoshone County ballot were uncontested races.
This means that Shoshone County Sheriff Mike Gunderson (4,553 votes), Prosecuting Attorney Keisha Oxendine (4,398), 1st District Commissioner Mike Fitzgerald (4,056) and 2nd District Commissioner Jay Huber (4,280) will all hold onto their positions.
Legislative District 7 State Sen. Carl Crabtree (4,919), District 7 State Rep. A Priscilla Giddings (4,865) and District 7 State Rep. B Charlie Shepherd (4,887) also cruised to uncontested victories.