Elections held Tuesday; Results Wednesday

The primary season is finally over, barring any extremely unlikely ties or run-off elections.  Due to both the election and the printing schedules, however, the Enterprise will not be able to print the results of Tuesday’s election in the main print section of the paper until official results have been canvassed next Monday.  In lieu of that, we will include an insert in this week’s edition with the unofficial results posted by the clerk’s office on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, which you will find inside today’s paper.  Bear in mind that the results are not fully official until the Board of County Commissioners has officially accepted them at their next scheduled meeting, which, again, is next Monday.

Although things have varied historically over the decades, within recent memory Caribou County has been among the most reliably conservative counties in Idaho, joining Gem, Oneida, Franklin, Madison, and Idaho counties in that regard.  As in those other counties, the primary election is often the most contested election on the calendar, with little chance of the presidential or national seats going to anyone other than the primary winner from the GOP.  

At the state level, however, there are several candidates running in District 35 as Democrats—Joseph Messerly in 35A and Maggie Shaw in 35B for Representative spots, and Chris Riley in 35 for Senate.  They will face the winners of primary contests between Mark Harris and Doug Toomer in the Senate, and Brett Skidmore and Josh Wheeler in 35B.  Kevin Andrus in 35A is running unopposed in the primary.  

The primary race also includes an energetic race for the sheriff’s office between incumbent Adam Mabey and challenger Eric Bates, as well as a Commissioner’s race between incumbent Mark Mathews and challenger Kim Spencer.  The coroner’s position was recently shaken by the removal of Jacob Fullmer, however, that should not ultimately affect the race itself as a new serving coroner won’t be approved by the commissioners until after the primary election has ended.