Idaho May 2026 Primary Election Live Updates

Voters in Cassia County said yes to a $6 million, two-year school levy for supplemental costs. Supplemental school levies also passed in Emmett, Glenns Ferry, Nez Perce, Riggins and Minidoka.

School levies failed in Middleton, which was asking for voters to renew an existing levy at a higher amount. Longer-term plant facilities levies and bonds were not as successful; voters said no to those asks in Kimberly and Payette. Idaho Ed News reports voters in Idaho have not approved a school bond since 2024.

Middleton voters did pass a temporary levy to fund the rural fire district, with 52% of the vote. It was a similar story in Star, where 56% of voters approved a temporary fire district levy. Parma's rural fire district permanent funding levy failed, with only 52% of the vote. It needed a supermajority.

Burley will get an additional $170,000 a year from voters this year and next to improve streets in town; that measure passed 69-31.

Voter turnout in the primary election was just over 30%, according to unofficial data from the Secretary of State's office. The highest turnout rate was nearly 52% in Shoshone and Bear Lake counties, driven by competitive county commissioner races.

Custer, Camas, Bonner, Washington, Power and Adams counties all turned out over 44%. In Ada County, the clerk's office had predicted between 40-50%, but the number was just under 27%, with only 80,000 ballots cast from more than 300,000 registered voters.

Other notable areas: under 23% turnout in Canyon County, 38% in Twin Falls County and 31% in Payette County, where voters turned out to say no to multiple school and emergency services levies.

Idaho’s so-called Gang of Eight, a group of far-right lawmakers, suffered heavy losses in last night’s elections. Voters rejected Sens. Josh Kohl and Glenneda Zuiderveld, along with Reps. Lucas Cayler, David Leavitt and Faye Thompson.

The group of legislators strongly opposed expanding funding for state agencies beyond keeping the lights on, as well as heavily advocating for far-right social issues.

Kohl, Zuiderveld and Leavitt all come from the Magic Valley, where agriculture groups weren’t happy with their full-throated support of ratcheting up state immigration enforcement.

While more mainstream Republicans won those races, according to unofficial results, Scott Herndon is returning to the Senate from North Idaho.

He’s swapping once again with his repeat opponent, Sen. Jim Woodward, who’s more of a moderating force in that chamber.

Otherwise, incumbents largely held on to their nominations, if not their seats entirely. Many of those races will be uncontested in the general election.

Voters in Idaho’s western counties up through the panhandle will get a rematch to represent them in Congress this November.

The Associated Press called the Republican and Democratic parties primaries for incumbent Russ Fulcher and Kaylee Peterson, respectively.

Fulcher has served in that seat since first winning it in 2018. He previously served in the Idaho legislature.

This is the third time that Peterson, a professional political strategist, has challenged Fulcher. She’s lost to him by about 45 points each time.

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch handily beat his three challengers to secure the Republican nomination, according to the Associated Press.

Risch has been the state’s junior senator since first winning election in 2008. He currently serves as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The AP also called the Democratic Party primary for David Roth, who has unsuccessfully sought public office since 2020.

Both men will square off against each other in November, along with Libertarian candidate Matt Loesby, who was unopposed.

State lawmakers across the conservative spectrum in Bonneville County have won their respective primaries, according to unofficial results.

Reps. Stephanie Mickelsen, Erin Bingham, Barbara Ehardt and Marco Erickson each seem to have come out on top in their races.

Rep. Mike Veile is currently in a roughly 15% lead over former state Rep. Chad Christensen, though that district representing several rural counties in eastern Idaho still has several precincts left to count.

The Associated Press has called several of Idaho’s primary election races, including gubernatorial races for both Democrats and Republicans.

Incumbent Gov. Brad Little has received 60.24% (87,153 votes) for the GOP as of 10:48 p.m. MT. The race call was made at 9:48 p.m. MT. On social media, Little posted, “It is the honor of a lifetime to serve the Gem State. Idaho, thank you for your support.”

For the Democrats, Terri Pickens has received the majority of votes, with the Associated Press calling the race at 9:32 p.m. MT. Pickens has received 63.02% (25,343 votes) as of 10:56 p.m. MT.

All 27,821 early voting and absentee ballots in Ada County have been counted, along with a small amount of Election Day votes.

Of those, incumbents are almost exclusively far more popular than their challengers at this early stage.

One exception would be the Republican Ada County Commission race between incumbent Ryan Davidson and Holly Cook. Just 33 votes separate the two as of about 9:30 p.m.

Ada County Elections says only 41.6% of the votes have been tabulated with this latest batch.

Polls closed across the entire state of Idaho as clocks hit 9 p.m. Mountain Time. No county, even those in the southern portion of the state, were allowed to upload results until this time.

You can find results for all contests here.

We’ll also be bringing you highlights from key races as the night goes on.

Polls are officially closed in the majority of Idaho, but polling stations will be open for another hour in the panhandle in the Pacific Time Zone.

Election results will start to come in shortly after polls close statewide at 9 p.m.

In Ada County, you can find election results on the Ada County Elections website or the embed below.

You can also watch poll workers count votes on a variety of different cameras provided by Ada County Elections.

In Canyon County, unofficial election results will be posted here after the polls close, but not before 8 p.m. Canyon County also has a livestream up of workers opening absentee ballots.

You can see statewide unofficial election results by clicking here.

Ada County released some early and absentee voting numbers on Monday. The Ada County Clerk's Office is predicting 40 to 50% turnout.

Nearly 13,000 people have already cast ballots at early voting locations, about 72% checking in as Republicans for the closed primary. Seventeen percent requested Democratic ballots and 9% unaffiliated, according to the county.

About three of every four early voters were aged 60 or older.

Ada County has also distributed more than 20,000 absentee ballots, about half of which have been returned so far. Absentee requests skewed differently than early voting by party, with 58% Republican ballots, 27% Democratic and 14% unaffiliated.

If you're still holding on to your absentee ballot, it needs to be returned to a dropbox by 8 p.m:

• Ada County Elections — 400 N Benjamin Ln, Ste 100
• Eagle City Hall — 660 E Civic Ln
• Star City Hall — 10769 W State St
• Meridian City Hall — 33 E Broadway Ave
• Kuna City Hall — 751 W 4th St
• Boise City Hall — 150 N Capitol Blvd