Rognstad’s gubernatorial bid in limbo

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SANDPOINT — Of the 15 people vying for the governor's seat, one of Bonner County’s hopefuls may be prevented from having his name printed on the ballot.

If the technicality stands, and Bonner County gubernatorial candidate Shelby Rognstad cannot have his name printed on the May 17 primary ballot as a Democrat, supporters will still be able to vote for him as a write-in candidate.

Rognstad’s campaign staff said the Sandpoint mayor had changed his registration in October 2021, but changes were not reflected in county records before the March 11 registration deadline.

“Immediately upon learning that the records did not accurately reflect his party registration, Mayor Rognstad used the Secretary of State’s online tool to change his party

Registration — again — to reflect that he is registered as a Democrat,” said Ethan Schaffer, Rognstad’s campaign manager.

Rognstad was found on Friday to be registered as a Republican, and not as a Democrat — his campaign’s designation. According to Chad Houck, chief deputy Secretary of State, Idaho law requires that candidates file with the party for which they are registered.

“There were two candidates for governor, both of whom had filing declarations that did not line up with their current voter registration,” Houck told Idaho Reports on Saturday morning.

According to a Saturday article by the Idaho Capital Sun, Rognstad was registered as a Republican, but was running as a Democrat. The other candidate, according to Houck, is Dr. Ryan Cole, a Boise pathologist. Cole was listed as a Constitution Party candidate. However, Cole’s voter registration was not affiliated with any political party as of Friday’s deadline.

The filing deadline for this year’s Nov. 8 election was on Friday at 5 p.m., mountain daylight time.

Things have changed since Friday’s deadline, Rognstad’s party affiliation being one of them.

Rognstad’s campaign wrote the Secretary of State on Sunday saying that Rognstad should still have his name printed on the ballot as a Democrat. That letter was released to the media Monday.

“To exclude Mayor Rognstad from the ballot merely because the party registration records did not match his declaration of candidacy for a few hours — at most — is both unfair and unjustified, especially considering that Mayor Rognstad had attempted to change his party registration months earlier,” Schaffer said.

Schaffer said Rognstad had re-registered as a Democrat in October 2021. However, there are no records of the change.

“At this time, we do not know why the registration records were not updated to reflect that change, and we continue to investigate the matter,” Schaffer said.

According to information from Schaffer and Bonner County Clerk Michael Rosedale, the Secretary of State’s office informed Rognstad’s campaign of the issue the day after the deadline.

“We were notified this morning by the SoS office that they are reviewing his filing and are conferring with the Attorney General’s office to determine whether he will be allowed to be on the primary ballot,” Shaffer said.

Rosedale said that was when Rognstad changed his party affiliation online.

“[Rognstad] got word from the Secretary of State’s office that he in fact was not eligible to run for governor in the Democratic party because he was still registered as a Republican. I understand that he immediately went online thereafter and changed to Democrat. By then it was too late,” Rosedale said. “I feel bad for him.”

When Rosedale was asked if Rognstad had enough of a case to legally dispute the technicality, Rosedale said it was his professional opinion that Rognstad has no legal grounds.

“There’s zero case there,” Rosedale said. “The law says that if that is not correct, it must be rejected. So there’s no prevailing lawsuit there.”

Rognstad has yet to officially withdraw from the governor’s race. Rognstad’s campaign maintains that excluding Rognstad from the gubernatorial race would “threaten to violate the fundamental constitutional rights of Mayor Rognstad, the Idaho Democratic Party, and Idaho voters.”

Although the Idaho Secretary of State’s office has not published an official list of gubernatorial candidates, there are 13 unofficial candidates as of Friday evening.