Idaho Presidential Primary—Boundary County Report
March 9, 2016
In the four Republican primaries and caucuses held yesterday, Idaho was the only state that prevented presidential candidate Donald Trump from claiming a clean sweep of the days' voting. Idaho voters instead gave a victory to Ted Cruz, who garnered 45% of Idaho's votes, well ahead of Mr. Trump's second place finish at 28%.

Mr. Trump won the remaining three of yesterday's Republican races, which included primary elections in Michigan and Mississippi, and caucuses in Hawaii.

The other active Republican candidates, Marco Rubio and John Kasich, won 16% and 7.5% of Idaho's primary votes respectively.

In Boundary County, results generally reflected the Idaho statewide numbers, Mr. Cruz in first place with 901 votes (45%), Mr. Trump second with 788 votees (40%), Mr. Rubio third with 131 votes (6.5%), and Mr. Kasich with 107 votes (5%). Boundary County's biggest vote-getter outside of the four remaining active candidates was Ben Carson, who received 39 votes.

Statewide, Ted Cruz won victories in 32 of Idaho's 44 counties, with Donald Trump winning in 12 counties.

Boundary County voter turnout for the Presidential Primary was 1,993 voters out of 5,508 voters registered, for 36%.

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Idaho's 32 delegates to July's Republican National Convention will be awarded based upon the votes cast in yesterday's primary. State GOP officials have indicated that allocation of the delegates will be made later today. To receive any of Idaho's delegates, a candidate had to receive at least 20% of the votes in the primary. Based on vote totals, only Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, the only candidates to receive more than 20% of the vote, will be receiving those Idaho delegates.

The Idaho Constitution Party Primary was also held yesterday. In that race, Scott Copeland of Texas won the Idaho statewide race, with 245 votes compared to second place J.R. Myers' 137 votes. Locally, however, Mr. Myers handily defeated Mr. Copeland, getting twice the number of votes, 2 votes to 1.

Yesterday's election was the first time Boundary County voted with its new electronic vote counting machines. Poll workers with whom we spoke yesterday indicated they were very happy with how the new devices were working, and were happy also that they would not be staying up most of the night counting votes.

Boundary County Clerk Glenda Poston was also pleased with the new machines. "The new electronic voting tabulators worked just great," she said. "Our county was the first in the north to have our election results tabulated and submitted to the state."

Next up for Idaho in the presidential races this year will be the statewide Democratic Party caucuses on March 22.  Boundary County Democrats will be participating in that process.

Voting summaries for yesterday's Presidential Primary are listed in the following table for Boundary Couny and Idaho statewide results.  Also included are results from the other states holding primary elections and caucuses yesterday, Michigan, Mississippi, and Hawaii.
 
 
Preliminary Results for Boundary County, Idaho--as of 9:23 p.m., March 8
Presidential Primary Results, March 8, 2016
Unofficial Totals-- 7 of 7 precincts reporting
 
BOUNDARY COUNTY:  Candidates for the Republican Nomination for President
Candidates BF Cplnd Moyie Naples N BF VV Absentee TOTAL
Mike Huckabee   1 1 1     3
John R. Kasich 14 4 25 20 15 14 15 107
Peter Messina 0
Rand Paul   1 2 2   1 1 7
Marco Rubio 9 7 23 26 23 21 22 131
Rick Santorum               0
Donald J. Trump 93 86 187 118 140 97 67 788
Jeb Bush     1   2   3 6
Ben Carson 6   10 7 6 4 6 39
Chris Christie             3 3
Ted Cruz 140 97 223 142 135 115 40 901
Carly Fiorina             1 1
Lindsey Graham         1 1 2 4
TOTALS >>> 262 195 472 316 323 253 169 1,990
 
BOUNDARY COUNTY:  Candidates for the Constitution Party Nomination for President
Candidates BF Cplnd Moyie Naples N BF VV Absentee TOTAL
Scott Copeland       1       1
J.R. Myers     2         2
Patrick Anthony Ockander               0
 
Total Boundary County registered voters as of cutoff = 5,508
Boundary County percent voter turnout:  36%
 
IDAHO STATEWIDE:  Candidates for the Republican Nomination for President
  Votes Percent            
Mike Huckabee 347 0.2%            
John R. Kasich 15,963 7.5%            
Peter Messina 27 0.0%
Rand Paul 803 0.4%            
Marco Rubio 34,772 16.2%            
Rick Santorum 209 0.1%            
Donald J. Trump 60,236 28.1%            
Jeb Bush 924 0.4%
Ben Carson 3807 1.8%            
Chris Christie 349 0.2%            
Ted Cruz 96,411 45.0%            
Carly Fiorina 234 0.1%            
Lindsey Graham 80 0.0%            
                 
 
IDAHO STATEWIDE:  Candidates for the Constitution Party Nomination for President
Candidates Votes Percent            
Scott Copeland 245 51.7%            
J.R. Myers 137 28.9%
Patrick Anthony Ockander 92 19.4%            
                 
 
Other States Holding Primaries on March 8
Michigan, Republican Primary Percent              
Donald J. Trump 36.5%              
Ted Cruz 24.9%              
John Kasich 24.3%              
Marco Rubio 9.3%              
 
Michigan, Democratic Primary Percent              
Bernie Sanders 49.8%              
Hillary Clinton 48.3%              
 
Mississippi, Republican Primary Percent              
Donald J. Trump 47.3%              
Ted Cruz 36.3%              
John Kasich 8.8%              
Marco Rubio 5.1%              
 
Mississippi, Democratic Primary Percent              
Bernie Sanders 82.6%              
Hillary Clinton 16.5%              
                 
 
Hawaii, Republican Caucuses Percent              
Donald J. Trump 42.4%              
Ted Cruz 32.7%              
John Kasich 10.6%              
Marco Rubio 13.1%