Members of the Idahoans for Open Primaries movement submitted their signatures to the Idaho Secretary of State's office for final verification on Tuesday, leaving supporters optimistic their ballot initiative will qualify for the Nov. 5 general election.
In Idaho, a ballot initiative is a form of direct democracy in which residents vote on whether to pass a bill without intervention from the Idaho State Legislature.
If placed on the ballot and receives majority support from voters, the ballot measure would end Idaho's closed primary elections and create a ranked-choice voting system for the general election.
Taylor Jenkins, an independent voter living in South Carolina, spoke in support of the initiative on the steps of the Idaho State Capitol in Boise.
Jenkins is one of 250,000 independent voters in Idaho. Under a 2011 state law, political parties are not required to allow people who are not officially affiliated with a party to vote in their primary elections. Jenkins said he chose to remain politically independent because no party aligns exactly with his views.
“I know I’m not the only one who feels left out by our current closed primary system,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins said the closed primaries are frustrating because Republicans have an overwhelming majority and many elections are effectively decided in primaries before the general election.
“I feel compelled to register with a party I don’t believe in, just so I can have a voice,” Jenkins said. “(But) open primaries give me hope. This reform promises a future where Idahoans have the freedom to vote in every election, regardless of political affiliation, and aren’t forced to choose a party to participate in taxpayer-funded elections.”
Supporters of open primaries have been collecting signatures across the state since last year.
Supporters have been gathering signatures in neighborhoods and public events across the state since last year to try to qualify the initiative for this year’s general election. To qualify for the November election, supporters must collect signatures from at least 6% of registered voters statewide and at least 6% of voters in at least 18 of the state’s congressional districts. To meet the statewide total, open primary supporters need about 63,000 signatures.
Open primary advocates have already completed one round of signature verification. In a phone interview Monday, Reclaim Idaho co-founder Luke Mayville said county clerks across the state have verified enough signatures to exceed both requirements. Reclaim Idaho, part of the Open Primary Coalition, is the same group behind the successful 2018 Medicaid expansion ballot initiative that was approved by more than 60 percent of Idaho voters.
Mayville told the Sun that in the first round of signature verification this spring, the county verified about 75,000 signatures, enough to qualify 20 precincts instead of 18.
“Supporters across the state are excited about the opportunity to submit signatures and move on to the next phase,” Mayville told the Sun. “This is a celebration of how far we’ve come, and it’s also the beginning of the next phase of the campaign, which is making sure every single person in Idaho knows that every voter has the opportunity to participate in the primary.”
Mayville told the Sun that he expects the final signature review period to take a week or two. Once the final review is complete, supporters will know if the ballot initiative is officially certified for the Nov. 5 general election. If certified, Mayville said the open primary initiative will appear on the ballot as Proposition 1.
Supporters collected signatures from county clerks and submitted them for final verification at the Idaho Secretary of State’s office at the Idaho State Capitol in Boise on Tuesday. More than 200 open primary supporters gathered on the steps of the Capitol at the event, forming a line that stretched inside. As they chanted, “Vote yes to an open primary; vote yes on 1!”, supporters passed boxes containing signatures from each county in Idaho down the Capitol steps and delivered them to the Idaho Secretary of State’s office.
The Idaho Open Primaries Coalition includes Reclaim Idaho, Mormon Women for Ethical Government, Veterans for Idaho Voters, Republicans for Open Primaries, and thousands of volunteers.
The Idaho Republican Party officially opposes the initiative.
How does the Open Primary Ballot Initiative work?
The initiative seeks to end the closed primary law that prevents political parties from allowing unaffiliated voters and other voters to vote in their primaries. The law also allows parties to choose to open their primaries to other voters if they notify the Idaho Secretary of State, but only the Democratic Party has opened its primary. The Idaho Secretary of State’s office previously said the Republican, Constitution Party, and Libertarian Party primaries were all closed.
Instead of a closed primary, this initiative would create a single open primary in which all candidates and all voters would participate. In this open primary system, the four candidates who receive the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, would all advance to the general election.
The ballot measure would also change Idaho's general election by implementing a ranked-choice voting system, sometimes called an instant runoff. In this system, voters would choose their favorite candidate and rank the remaining candidates in order of preference: second, third, and fourth. The candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated, and instead their vote would be transferred to the second-ranked candidate on that voter's ballot. This process would continue until there were two candidates, and the candidate with the most votes would be elected the winner. In this system, voters would only vote once.
Idaho Republicans Oppose Ranked Choice Voting
The Idaho Republican Party expressed its opposition to ranked-choice voting at the secretive Idaho GOP state convention in Coeur d'Alene last month. At the closed-door meeting, delegates updated the Idaho GOP platform to specifically oppose ranked-choice voting. The platform reads, “The Idaho Republican Party opposes ranked-choice voting and other iterations of ranked-choice voting, such as STAR Voting, ballot-out and instant runoff elections.”
Efforts to reach Idaho Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon on Monday were unsuccessful.
But Moon said in an interview outside the Idaho Republican state convention on June 13 that he opposes ballot initiatives and ranked-choice voting.
“It’s a bad thing (Republicans) are asking about ranked-choice voting,” Moon told Sun. “It’s going to destroy our conservative Republican state. So if you want to be like California — another Democratic state — pass ranked-choice voting. That was the last Democratic voting system in Alaska.”
President Moon said the ranked election system was confusing and complicated.
“We have a lot of troops out there ready to fight this,” Moon said. “You have to vote for someone you don’t like, and it’s a very confusing system, especially for people who are used to voting for one person for one office, and then suddenly you’re voting for multiple people.”
Although the Idaho Republican Party voted to oppose ranked-choice voting in its party platform, not all Republicans are opposed to the initiative. Former Gov. Butch Otter, former Idaho House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, and more than 100 former GOP officials and voters supported the ballot initiative.
Hiram Erickson, a Republican precinct committee member from Rexburg, also supports the open primary initiative. Speaking and participating in a polling day event in Boise on Tuesday, Erickson said closed primaries are bad for voters and bad for the Idaho Republican Party.
“(Closed primaries) encourage everyone to join the Republican Party, even if they have no real affinity for the party itself or its policies,” Erickson told The Sun. “It allows special interests and anyone seeking political power in Idaho to focus their money and resources on a small subset of voters who vote in a closed Republican primary.”
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