Full Idaho Senate rejects challenge to November election results

BOISE - The Idaho Senate voted 34-0 Tuesday to reject a contest of the November election results from Tom Katsilometes, a Pocatello Republican who lost in November to new Sen. Mark Nye, D-Pocatello.

The vote followed a three-hour hearing in the Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday that also resulted in a unanimous vote to reject the challenge, which claimed violations of the state’s Sunshine Law requirements for campaign finance reporting, along with irregularities in vote-counting and tabulation. The committee determined the claims weren’t founded.

“The contestant has not proved that there were any violations, let alone that they were sufficient to affect the result,” said Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg.

It’s only the third time in Idaho history that the Senate has faced such a challenge; the state constitution puts it, not the courts, in charge of weighing challenges to Senate election results. The last two challenges came in 1981 and 1945.