Jim Brannon v. City of Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, 292 P.3d 234

Coeur d’Alene municipal election 2009; Kennedy defeated Brannon by five votes for City Council seat 2 (3165–3160).
Brannon filed election contest Nov. 30, 2009, amended Dec. 10, 2009, naming City, City Clerk Weathers, Kennedy, city council, and mayor.
Trial court conducted bench trial Sept. 2010; memorandum decision Nov. 5, 2010 affirmed Kennedy’s victory; Brannon moved for new trial/amendment and it was denied.
District court held no sufficient illegal votes or irregularities to alter the result; rejected malconduct and other Brannon claims.
On appeal Brannon argues improper delegation of election duties to county, trial errors, and denial of motions; Respondents argue UOCAVA misapplied, but otherwise supported trial results.
Supreme Court affirms district court’s decision, holding no reversible error and upholding trial outcomes.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Disqualification of judge for cause	Hosack biased by comments	Comments were unrelated collateral matter	No abuse of discretion; denial upheld
UOCAVA applicability to municipal elections	UOCAVA governs absentee voting including non-residents	UOCAVA not applicable to city elections pre-2011; FVAA controls	UOCAVA not applicable; five votes deemed legal under FVAA provisions present at time
Testimony from non-city residents who returned absentee ballots	Non-city witnesses should be compelled to testify	Rule 45 and long-arm limits require living within jurisdiction; not required	District court did not err; no compulsion of non-residents
Malconduct in election; sufficiency of evidence	Irregularities show malconduct capable of altering result	Record shows no malconduct or fraud; insufficient evidence	Trial court properly dismissed malconduct claim
Burden of proof in election contests	Burden should shift to defendant after prima facie showing	No burden shift absent proof of enough illegal votes to change outcome	District court correctly kept burden on Brannon; no shift
Delegation of city election duties to County (I.C. § 34-1401)	Delegation violated municipal election law	No evidence to support entire-election challenge; focus on Seat 2	moot in light of insufficient evidence to alter outcome

Chamberlain v. Woodin, 2 Idaho 642 (1890) (early malconduct standard for elections; focus on unfair counting)
Jaycox v. Varnum, 39 Idaho 78 (1924) (burden of proof in election contests; must show votes could change result)
Noble v. Ada Cnty. Elections Bd., 135 Idaho 495 (2000) (burden to prove illegal votes could change result; evidence must support change)
Liteky v. United States, 510 U.S. 540 (1994) (expressions by judge during proceedings may indicate bias only if deep-seated and favoring one party)
Bach v. Bagley, 148 Idaho 784 (2010) (standard for disqualification: bias or interest must be shown by beyond reasonable doubt)
Knutsen v. Cloud, 142 Idaho 148 (2005) (long-arm jurisdiction limits; non-parties not subject to broad jurisdictio)
Myers v. United States, 553 F.3d 328 (4th Cir. 2009) (statutory adoption and co-existence of references in adopting statutes)