BOISE, Idaho — Idaho voters will be faced with a major ballot initiative on November 5, which would completely restructure the gem state’s primaries.
As it stands today, Idaho operates a closed-party primary, meaning voters can only cast a vote for the political party they are affiliated with. Essentially, a registered republican voter could not cast a vote for a democratic candidate and vice versa.
Proposition 1 would replace this system with an open primary format, meaning voters wouldn’t have to be affiliated with a political party to cast their vote. This would give Idaho’s nearly 270 thousand unaffiliated registered voters a chance to offer their voice in the primaries.
Under this initiative, the top four candidates who receive the highest amount of votes would advance to the general election.
The amount of signatures required to put a measure on the ballot in Idaho is at least 6% of registered voters.
The organization Open Primaries for Idaho accomplished that, collecting 97,000 signatures to put this initiative on the general election ballot.
Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador has been in a lengthy fight to keep this measure off November’s ballot.
Labrador tried to bring this matter before the Idaho Supreme Court, which promptly rejected his argument on August 13. The state’s highest court ruled this matter was better suited for district court, which denied Labrador’s arguments on September 5.
Labrador argued Open Primaries for Idaho misled the public about this initiative and collected fraudulent signatures. He asked the court to declare at least 12,000 signatures in support of this initiative to be “null and void” and asked Open Primaries for Idaho to withdraw its initiative.
The District Court, however, denied Labrador’s claims, writing, “there is no genuine issue of material fact suggesting sufficient false statements to taint enough signatures for the Court to declare more than 12,000 signatures be stricken.”
Voters will decide for themselves whether or not to revamp Idaho’s primaries on November 5.
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