Mayor who’s running for Idaho governor hit a paperwork snag at filing deadline

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) – Shelby Rognstad does not appear on the Secretary of State’s website of gubernatorial candidates, despite announcing he had filed as a Democratic candidate for governor before the Friday deadline.

That may be because according to public records, Rognstad was registered as a Republican for the last election. If Rognstad didn’t change his affiliation before the filing deadline, his name may not appear on the Democratic primary ballot.

Rognstad is the mayor of Sandpoint.

Idaho law requires that candidates file with the party for which they are registered, said Chad Houck, chief deputy Secretary of State.

“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.

Houck said he didn’t have the names in front of him, but told Idaho Reports one was a Democratic candidate who was registered as a Republican, and the other was an unaffiliated voter who had filed as a Constitution Party candidate.

Boise pathologist Dr. Ryan Cole also did not appear on the unofficial list posted on sos.idaho.gov as of 8:40 pm Friday night. Cole told Idaho Dispatch on Friday he was running for governor as a Constitution Party candidate.

According to public records, Cole is an unaffiliated voter.

Candidates had until 5 p.m. MT Friday to file for office. Houck told Idaho Reports those candidates may have changed their affiliation at their local county offices after filing with the Secretary of State.

“As of when we closed out last night, Jason (Hancock, deputy secretary of state) had looked into and reached out to the county clerks in the associated counties to see if they had anything pending they hadn’t processed yet. At that point they did not,” Houck said. “However, the list that’s up is still unofficial.”

Ethan Schaffer, campaign manager for Rognstad, confirmed to Idaho Reports via text that the Secretary of State’s office had informed the campaign of potential problems with Rognstad’s filing, but didn’t specify what those problems might be.

“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 wrote.

Idaho Reports attempted to reach Cole on Saturday morning and has not yet heard back.