Election recount planned in North Idaho county that didn’t report 2,300 ballots

A North Idaho county on Tuesday will recount all ballots cast after local election officials didn’t report votes from 2,342 ballots, the state’s election agency announced Monday.

In Latah County, home to Moscow, the ballots — representing a portion of early voting before Election Day — were tabulated on the county’s machines but not reported publicly on the county’s election results system, according to a news release by the Office of the Idaho Secretary of State. 

The Latah County Clerk’s Office, headed by elected local Republican Julie Fry, discovered the mistake when it was reviewing election results ahead of the county’s canvass, a step in the process to certify election results as official, the secretary of state’s office said. 

“This is a significant discrepancy in results, and we are taking it very seriously,” said Secretary of State Phil McGrane, a Republican. “Every Idahoan needs to have confidence that their vote counted, and we’re working closely with Latah County Clerk Julie Fry and her team to ensure the results are accurately reported, and every vote is properly accounted for.”

A Democratic candidate for Latah County commissioner requested a recount from the secretary of state

The recount might affect results in several local races — including in three state legislative seats, along with county-level races for two commissioner seats, the clerk and the treasurer. But the Secretary of State’s Office says that an early review of the missed votes show they wouldn’t change the outcomes of races. Boise State Public Radio reported that Fry did not count votes herself since she was seeking re-election in a contested race. 

“We take our responsibility to accurately report election results seriously, and this error should not have happened,” Fry said in a statement. “We identified the discrepancy during our review, and we’re taking the additional step of conducting a full recount to ensure the results are accurate. Voters deserve to have confidence that every vote is counted and accurately reported.”

A Democratic commissioner candidate in the county, Laura Heinse, submitted a complaint to McGrane requesting a full recount of ballots cast in her race. Initial, unofficial election results show she was nearly 200 votes behind Republican Dan Schoenberg in the race for the district two seat. 

“I request a documented timeline establishing when the error was discovered, who knew about it, whether some candidates knew of the error before others, when corrective actions occurred, and why candidates and the public were not promptly informed,” Heinse wrote in her complaint, which the Idaho Capital Sun obtained Monday.

Two years ago, in the 2024 presidential election, some University of Idaho students had to wait in lines for hours to vote in the county, the Spokesman-Review reported at the time. 

Recount is scheduled for Tuesday morning. It’s open to the public. 

The secretary of state’s office described the error in Latah County as “the result of a procedural error in reporting election-night results,” and said the state election agency will oversee the recount and keep working with Latah County to determine the cause of the mistake and identify how to prevent it in the future.

The recount is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Pacific time Tuesday at the Latah County Courthouse, which is located at 522 S. Adams St., Suite 10, in Moscow. The recount is open for the public to observe. 

“We have the canvass period and review processes in place to serve as important safeguards to ensure election results are accurate,” McGrane said in a statement. “In this case, Latah County was working through these safeguards and identified a discrepancy that needs to be corrected. Every indication is that the election was conducted properly and a mistake was made when sharing the results publicly. Regardless, in Idaho, we have a paper record of every vote cast for this very reason. We will go back and count all the original votes so everyone can have confidence in the process. Clerk Fry and I are committed to ensuring every vote is counted and reported.”

The results from last week’s election remain unofficial until they are certified by the State Board of Canvassers, which is scheduled to meet Nov. 24.