The 2007 election in Ada and Canyon counties to launch what would become the College of Western Idaho was practically won before the May election day.
Backers handed out tens of thousands of brochures with cards that voters could use to request absentee ballots. Thousands did. By election night, the community college's future was secured when 68.4 percent of the voters — just over the two-thirds needed for approval of a community college district — supported the measure.