This Idaho city has long been home to a faction of the far right, including board members of the Idaho Freedom Foundation | Opinion

A runoff race for the next Idaho Falls mayor ended Tuesday night, electing a lifelong Idaho Falls resident and former city council member to the city’s top spot. Burtenshaw was elected as the new mayor of Idaho Falls,

Runoff elections are happening in Idaho Falls and Pocatello on Tuesday, Dec. 2, and polling locations are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. These runoff elections are occurring because no candidate in these races received more than 50% of the vote in the general election on Nov.

The Idaho Sunshine Report currently reflects financial filings up until the date this article was published. More filings are expected to be reported by the Dec. 10, 2025, deadline, potentially increasing the PAC money totals.

Voters will head to the polls Tuesday to make their final choice in the run-off election for Idaho Falls Mayor and City Council Seat 2. As the hard-fought campaign winds up, Local News 8 interviewed both candidates for mayor the day before the run-off to learn how race dynamics have changed in the past month.

The 2025 election wraps up tonight, Tuesday, December 2, 2025, as polls are now open for critical runoff elections in both Idaho Falls and Pocatello. This is the final chance for residents in both cities to cast their ballots and decide the leadership that will guide their communities over the next four years.

After the November elections, Idaho Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon celebrated the “strong conservative campaigns” she witnessed in Caldwell, Post Falls and Pocatello. Those were all nonpartisan races, she acknowledged — but that label is a “farce,” she wrote in a Nov. 6 post.

Key to ensuring trustworthy elections, voter registration lists (“voter rolls”) have received heightened scrutiny from both federal and state lawmakers in recent years. Citizenship verification for voters was a particularly high priority for the Trump administration,