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IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI)– Early voting for the Idaho Falls runoff election has been strong, with more than 1,080 in-person ballots cast and about 250 absentee ballots returned so far, but data shows that younger voters continue to have the lowest turnout.

“So for this run-off election, it has started very robust. We started last week on Thursday, and in the first through the first two days, we had over 800 people come and early vote. Right now we are at just over 1,087 voters at this point. Plus we have had about 250 mail absentee ballots returned to us out of over 1200 that we have mailed out so far,” Helena Welling, the election supervisor for Bonneville County, said.

Welling believes that this great turnout has been due to multiple positive factors, but especially because voters are eager to vote.

“They know who they’re voting for, they’ve already done it kind of once, and they may be just wanting to get it out of the way,” Welling said, “I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we don’t have an incumbent for the mayor. We had a lot of candidates for the council member seats. So there has been a lot of interest in there. And it seems like there’s a lot of strong opinions out there. And I do believe that people are wanting to get the voting done before the holidays hit.”

Despite the strong turnout for early voting, younger crowds stand as the lowest demographic for voters.

Welling reports that 1,858 voters are between the ages 18-34. While 3,548 fall within the 35-49 age group. The highest turnout comes from voters ages 65 and older, totaling 4,298.

The run-off election for Idaho Falls is on December 2nd.

For more information on where to vote and how to register, click HERE.

With water levels dropping as low as 3% capacity, fishing conditions at the American Falls reservoir have dropped significantly this past year.

“The American Falls Reservoir was built for flood control and to serve irrigation needs,” said Patrick Kennedy, the regional fisheries manager at the Idaho Fish and Game. “Demand was high this year, and and so they they drew the reservoir down to meet that demand.”

When water levels drop that low, water temperatures tend to warm, oxygen levels deplete, and “Fish survival rates decrease,” said Kennedy.

When this happens fish tend to leave the region for survival. Some go upstream, but many go downstream where they run into a similar problem. Plus, once winter does hit, flows out of the American Falls reservoir are reduced to help slowly fill up the lake. That further decreases water quality for the fish that did make the trip downstream.

Fish and Game did pull off a major restocking this fall as the reservoir slowly fills up to combat this loss of fish.

“We have already stocked back 42,000 catchable sized trout. Those are 8 to 12 inches in size,” said Kennedy. “and we stocked 250,000 fingerlings; rainbow trout and fingerling sizes are 3 to 4 inches in size”

The restock is welcome, but it does mean that a reservoir known for some large “trophy catches” won’t have fish of that size for next year’s season. Something that’s a bummer for local anglers.

“Normally, with the habitat and water source and quality that they have, it tends to grow very large fish very rapidly,” said AJ an experienced fisherman with Fish Fly Food Jimmy’s in Idaho Falls.

AJ and his coworkers regularly help visiting anglers know where to go to find the best fishing. He says while the American Falls Reservoir recovers, there are other good spots for fishermen to go if they’re looking for that mountable “trophy catch.”

“I would say Chesterfield, Henry’s Lake, South Fork of the Snake River are good spots,” said AJ. “Kind of variable with species, but there are lots of trophies to be caught in waters nearby.”

Back at the American Falls Reservoir, Patrick Kennedy with the Idaho Fish and Game says the system will recover, and people will be catching large fish in the lake in no time.

“The dam was built for irrigation purposes and flood control. and and we made a fishery out of it by stocking fish years ago,” said Kennedy. “And we can do it again. It will recover.”