At a white-draped table in the well of the Senate, an unusual ceremony is taking place, as part of an unsuccessful Senate candidate’s formal protest of the election. Idaho Secretary of State Lawerence Denney and Chief Deputy Tim Hurst carried in a sealed box. “I am delivering to you today a sealed box containing depositions, exhibits, testimonies and other documents related to the election contest in District 29,” Denney announced to the Senate.

Lt. Gov. Brad Little appointed a committee consisting of Minority Leader Michelle Stennett and President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, who took seats at the table and began inventorying the contents of the box, as other senators looked on, including Senate State Affairs Chairman Jeff Siddoway, R-Terreton.

New Sen. Mark Nye, D-Pocatello, defeated his Republican challenger, Tom Katsilometes – not the longtime county commissioner and current state tax commissioner by that name, but a cousin – with 48.1 percent of the vote in the November election. Katsilometes got 44.9 percent and independent Sierra “Idaho Lorax” Carta took 7 percent. Katsilometes filed a formal notice to the Senate contesting the election result, claiming a series of errors in vote counting, tabulation and sunshine law compliance.

 After the contents are fully inventoried, “The materials will be presented to the chairman of the State Affairs Committee,” said Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls. “And the State Affairs Committee will meet and consider the election contest.” The panel then will send its committee report to the full Senate. “We’ll receive the committee report and the Senate will decide what to do with it,” Davis said.

Nye said earlier, “We won this fair and square. I look forward to being the senator, somebody that’s going to fight for Pocatello and help the people of the state.” Nye served one term in the House from the same district, District 29, before winning the Senate seat in November. It was previously held by Sen. Roy Lacey, D-Pocatello, who retired.

Under the Idaho Constitution, the Senate is the judge in the case of a formal contest of Senate election results, not the courts.

Once the Senate has completed its review of the election contest, the Senate president pro-tem, by law, is charged with returning the poll books and other official county documents to the county elections clerk in Bannock County.