KTRV Fox 12 Absentee initiative passes muster with Idaho AG
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Associated Press - August 17, 2009 8:04 AM ET
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - A voter initiative to allow permanent mail-in absentee voting has passed final review by the Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa and Attorney General Lawrence Wasden.
A group led by Larry Grant, who ran for Congress in 2006 as a Democrat, wants to allow people to register just once with their county clerk to vote absentee, rather than having to do it again and again every year.
Grant, chairman of Idaho Vote by Mail, is trying to get the initiative on the ballot for 2012 and must collect 52,000 registered voters' signatures to do it.
County clerks have supported such efforts, saying it would make voting more convenient and boost turnout.
Conservative members of the Idaho House including Speaker Lawerence Denney, a Republican from Midvale, have shot down past attempts to pass such a measure in the Legislature - on grounds that it opens voting up to fraud and is a radical departure from in-person voting.
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