Originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on November 24, 2025
MOUNTAIN HOME, ID – New election results are expected today in Elmore County, where four school-related elections — including one decided by a single vote — could shift.
Three hundred ballots cast on Election Day were not tallied, Secretary of State Phil McGrane told a crowd of about 20 observers at the Elk’s Lodge in Mountain Home early Monday morning. He is now leading a team of 18 staff members from his office as they hand count approximately 3,100 ballots. Three teams of four seated at folding tables are methodically counting every vote on every ballot in Elmore County.
The 300 ballots were never lost or missing, he said, but he’s not sure how the discrepancy occurred.
“We’re still trying to figure that out,” McGrane told EdNews. “That’s what this process is for.”
Four tightly contested school-related elections hang in the balance.
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- The Mountain Home School District’s $6.2 million supplemental levy passed by 20 votes.
- Voters in Elmore and Owyhee counties supported keeping Bruneau Elementary School open by a 59-vote margin.
- A Glenns Ferry School District trustee race between winner Robert Bergh and runner-up Alan Crane was decided by one vote.
- Three votes made the difference in a Bruneau-Grand View School District trustee race between winner Raelynn Mathews and runner-up Jeremy Pineda.bx
Sen. Christy Zito, R-Mountain Home, observed the recount. As a resident of Elmore County, she said it felt like it was her civic duty to attend.
“Being involved in the government that is of the people,” Zito said. “It’s important that we participate.”
Elmore County Sheriff Mike Hollinshead was charged with securing the ballots through the process. He held the door open as a deputy used a handcart to bring red boxes filled with all 3,100 ballots into the Elk’s Lodge.
County Clerk Shelley Essl then opened the red boxes and officials distributed the paper ballots among the three tables. She said she hopes McGrane and his staff will help find out what happened. She initially noticed a discrepancy when she looked at the total ballots cast compared with how many were counted.
“Something happened in the processing of those, because all the ballots are accounted for,” Essl said. “They were always accounted for.”
The results will “definitely” be complete today, she added.
“Once they start counting, they can’t stop,” she said.
Inside the process
Three teams of four today are hand counting 3,100 ballots. Secretary of State Phil McGrane told the 20 observers at the Elk’s Lodge in Mountain Home how the process works:
- One person at each table looks at a ballot and reads the results aloud.
- The person sitting next to them looks over their shoulder to double check.
- Sitting opposite, two people record each vote in separate tally books. They occasionally check in to make sure their tallies match.
“With the hand count process,” McGrane said. “There’s always the opportunity for human error, both on the tally side and the reading side, so we have safeguards in place.”
This is the same process the state uses for every recount or audit, and is based on best practices nationally.
After the count is complete, the Elmore County Board of County Commissioners will meet as the Board of Canvassers to canvass the results. Then the count goes to judicial review.
“A judge will ultimately do the assessment of what are the implications here and, if necessary in any instance, a new election would need to be called,” McGrane said. “But by the end of the day we will have new results.”
McGrane said he can’t recall a situation like this, where every vote in every race in the county needs to be recounted.
“It’s more important that we take our time and are very deliberate about everything that we do, rather than trying to hurry to get results,” he said.
EdNews will update this story throughout the day.
