Neither the school board nor the public can ask to have the question of keeping or changing the Teton High mascot put on November’s ballot, according to Dorothy Canary, Elections Compliance Specialist for the Secretary of State’s office in Boise.
“The election process is for electing school board trustees and bonds and levies, so, unfortunately, they would not be able to put the question about the school mascot on the ballot,” Canary wrote in response to an email from Teton County staff.
She clarified by phone that “they” in her email would mean either the Teton School District 401 Board of Trustees or if a request for adding it onto the ballot came from local citizenry.
Staff from the office of County clerk Kim Keeley reached out to the Secretary of State’s office after discussion arose about that possibility following Monday’s TSD school board meeting.
Limits on what is allowed on the official ballot are laid out in state statute, Canary said. Any kind of “mock election” could not take place at county election sites.
