MyPillow founder Mike Lindell's claims of voter fraud that swung the 2020 presidential election made national news.

A recount of ballots cast in Bonner County prompted by the claims was one of the top stories of the year in Bonner County.

Following a partial manual recount of Bonner County votes on Oct. 2 as well as full recounts in Butte and Camas counties, the Idaho Secretary of State said allegations challenging the accuracy of Idaho's November 2020 election were a big bust.

The findings: As expected, the election was executed with both integrity and accuracy, with the office finding only a roughly 0.1% margin of error across the three counties, according to state officials.

In the end, the vote count showed a 0.116% margin of error — a total of nine ballots with eight attributed to Trump and one to Biden. If the faint markings are taken into consideration, state officials said the margin of error on the ballots would drop to around 2.5 in 10,000, or 0.025%.

The Bonner County recount on Oct. 2 of about 7,900 ballots was the third conducted by the state over a two-week period. In total, eight precincts were included in the partial recount to get to about 7,900 votes out of the roughly 27,000 cast by Bonner County voters on Election Day. That statistical sample allowed the Secretary of State's office to extrapolate the numbers to see if the margin of error is plus or minus 0.2 percent — within the range of human error.

In counties where a full recount was done — Butte and Camas counties — both tabulated ballots by hand with no electronic counting. Camas saw a difference of 0.14% difference and Butte initially had a 0.63 difference. However, following the review in Butte County, where results initially showed 9 fewer votes counted, county officials did their own review of the poll and tally books. That review uncovered a math error that accounted for a 10-ballot overall difference.

The investigation was prompted by citizen submissions of a spreadsheet and website linked to MyPillow founder Mike Lindell.

Also making headlines in the Bonner County:

Water adjudication process begins

The Idaho Department of Water Resources began notifying property owners in the county this fall that it’s time to start submitting their water rights claims. The notifications were the first step of the next phase of Idaho’s water adjudication process.

The adjudication process enables existing water users to claim the quantities and priority dates for their water rights and have them recognized by an Idaho Court decree, Saxton said. Confirming the priority date matters because, in times of water scarcity, water users who are first in time are first in right, under Idaho water law.

A YouTube video that claimed the process was an effort by the state to usurp those rights prompted Idaho Department of Water Resources officials to issue a press release denying those claims. In the release, IDWR officials assured residents that while the process is underway, there is plenty of time to file their water rights claims.

So far, the department has sent out 5,000 notices to owners of property primarily located in the northwestern portion of Bonner County and western Boundary County, including the Priest River drainage, which includes the communities of Coolin and Priest River. Later, notices of claim filing requirements will be mailed to landowners located in most of central and eastern Bonner County.

Carpenter sentenced for Ramey's murder

Judith Marie Carpenter, 59, to second-degree murder in early June after accepted a plea deal in the the murder of former Hope city clerk Shirley Ramey. 

Ramey was shot to death inside her home in the Trestle Creek drainage on April 5, 2017. Investigators broke the case using the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’ National Integrated Ballistic Information Network, which allows for the capture and comparison of ballistic evidence.

Carpenter was found with the murder weapon, a Glock semiautomatic pistol, two years later in 2019 as part of a traffic incident in northwestern Montana. Montana deputies seized Carpenter’s Glock Model 19 semi-automatic pistol after she allegedly pointed it at another motorist on the same day Ramey was slain. They also recovered from Carpenter a Savage Model 99 lever-action rifle that was determined to be stolen from the Ramey residence.

Carpenter was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison as part of the plea deal during which Judge Barbara A. Buchanan determined that while, the murder was not premeditated, it was still willfully and deliberately done. 

Acosta sentenced in Bristow murder

A former Bonner County man indicted for the strangulation of Tammy Rae Bristow in January 1987 was sentenced to life in prison. 

William Rey Acosta entered an Alford plea to an amended charge of second-degree murder on Wednesday following mediation to resolve the 34-year-old case. Acosta was indicted by a Bonner County grand jury on a charge of first-degree murder in 2019, after he was linked to the killing through DNA evidence.

Acosta, 51, will have to serve 20 years of the sentence before he can be considered for parole.

Bristow, 18, was found slain in a south Sandpoint apartment on Jan. 8, 1987. She was strangled with a piece of guy line from a tent, according to contemporary press accounts of her killing.