Prop 1, A Return To The Good Old Days??? Jonathan Rawles

Return To The Good Old Days, Prop 1???

By: Jonathan Rawles

This November, Idaho will vote on Proposition 1, the “Open Primaries Act.” Don’t be deceived. It’s a revolutionary political scheme being billed as a return to the good old days. Prop 1 would fundamentally restructure how Idaho elects its county, state, and federal representatives, and replace our time-tested electoral system with a novel ranked-choice voting system.

Some History

Idaho has historically had open party primaries. Each voter received a single ballot, and the first question was which party’s primary they wished to vote in. This system was relatively clear and simple.

This still led to significant “crossover” voting, in which progressive, liberal, and moderate voters opted to vote in the GOP primary instead of the Democratic primary. Since Idaho is such a conservative state, the expectation was that they could have more influence over the election outcome by influencing the selection of the Republican nominee rather than choosing a Democratic nominee who would likely lose.

This had the long-term effect of compromising conservative politics in Idaho, as moderate Republicans (RINOs) appealed to and served liberal interests rather than the Republican platform or voters. In the general election, conservative voters would see the republican nominee as the best available option, even if they were a known RINO. This led to the growth of a corrupt and progressive-leaning Republican party in the state, where despite having a Republican governor and supermajorities in the legislature, conservative governance never really happened.

This changed in 2011. With the move to closed primaries, political parties were able to limit participation to only voters who were affiliated with the party. In Idaho, this means that only Republican-affiliated voters or unaffiliated voters who choose to affiliate as Republicans on or before Election Day are eligible to vote in the party primary.

The effects of this change have been tremendous. By excluding “crossover” voters, the primaries have regained their original role of helping the party choose its best candidate without outside interference. The closed primaries have led to an upheaval in the RINO establishment. We’ve seen the formation of a serious and motivated freedom caucus that was formerly excluded by the moderate establishment. The last 13 years have seen tremendous wins for liberty in Idaho, including legislation for property and income tax cuts, Constitutional concealed carry, protecting the life of the unborn, and against the advancement of the progressive agenda in public institutions.

What is Proposition 1?

Proposition 1 does not provide open party primaries such as Idaho had before 2011. It abolishes party primaries and replaces them with a new top-four primary system. Instead of each party having its own primary (whether open or closed), the top-four primary system places every candidate for office, regardless of party affiliation, on a single ballot. Voters are instructed to choose one candidate, and the four candidates receiving the most votes will move on to the general election.

The traditional one-person-one-vote election is then scrapped in favor of an instant-runoff ranked-choice voting system. We can no longer expect to see a Republican candidate, a Democratic candidate, and various third-party and independent candidates. Instead, the top four vote-getters in the primary are placed on the general ballot regardless of party affiliation.

At the general election, instead of simply voting for one’s preferred candidate, the voter must now rank these 4 candidates. If one candidate does not receive the majority of votes, the lowest scoring candidate is disqualified, and their votes are reassigned to each voter’s second choice candidate, and so on, until one candidate achieves a majority.

Why is This A Problem

Prop 1 creates confusion for voters. By opening the floodgates to every candidate in every primary, it will become more taxing on voters to make sense of the slate of candidates. This has rightly been called a “jungle primary”, as every candidate is competing against every other, and there’s no assurance that any party will even have a candidate make it to the general election. Instead of voting for the candidate that you think is the best pick in your party’s primary, you must vote strategically to even get your candidate to the general election. 

Compare the sample ballots from a traditional open party primary ballot (2008 Idaho primary) to an RCV “open primary” ballot (2022 Alaska primary):

Prop 1 enshrines crossover voting as a normal part of Idaho elections. Even in the open (party) primary system, a voter was obligated to pick a party and stick with it for the whole ballot. In the top-four primary system, a voter is free to pick and choose. They may vote straight Democrat for every race, except the crucial ones. In these crucial races, they are free to vote for a RINO moderate or spoiler candidate, hoping to disrupt the selection of a solid Republican candidate.

Prop 1 establishes ranked-choice voting, a novel and complex system totally foreign to Idaho’s electoral system. RCV is currently illegal under Idaho state law. The United States has used the party primary and general election system for over a hundred years. Now, the experts have come up with an “upgrade” for our antiquated electoral system. But they don’t tell us that. Instead, they ask the people of Idaho to vote on “open primaries” and hope they don’t read the fine print.

Who’s Who

You can learn a lot about this “non-partisan” issue when you look at the voices speaking for or against it. Idaho Dispatch has compiled helpful lists of the elected officials and political organizations that have endorsed or opposed Prop 1. 

Proposition One has been soundly condemned by conservative officeholders across the state, from conservative stalwart Rep. Heather Scott to our iffy Governor Brad Little. Solidly conservative Idaho AG Raul Labrador filed a lawsuit against Prop 1 in the Idaho Supreme Court due to Idahoans for Open Primaries’ deceptive tactics. The IDGOP has also taken a stand against Prop 1, along with most local committees.

Proposition One is being pushed by a laundry list of big-money progressive groups. Foremost amongst these is “Reclaim Idaho.” Reclaim Idaho has a long history of attempts to subvert Idaho’s increasingly conservative legislature with deceptively titled ballot initiatives, including a costly big-government Medicaid expansion and public school funding initiatives that have placed additional financial burdens on the people of Idaho. This is merely the latest in their duplicitous projects.

Don’t Become Alaska

Alaska should serve as a cautionary tale for the State of Idaho. In 2020, Alaska introduced a top-four primary RCV system via Alaska Proposition Two. The initiative passed with a narrow margin. The very first test of the new system was the August 2022 special election for Alaska’s vacant US House seat, which had appalling results.

The top-four general election pitted two Republican candidates against a single Democrat Mary Peltola. (One independent candidate withdrew before the election). Peltola only received 39% of first-choice votes, while 58% was split between the two Republican candidates. Thanks to the RCV instant runoff rules, enough votes were reassigned from the 2nd-place Republican candidate to Democrat Peltola to have her named as the winner in the “second round”.

Efforts immediately went underway to repeal this system. And so, it will happen that at the same time as Idaho will be voting to implement RCV, Alaska will be voting to repeal its RCV system.

The RCV experiment has been tried in Alaska, with disastrous consequences for four years. Let’s not take Idaho down the same road!

The Bottom Line

• Vote NO on Idaho Proposition 1 in November.
• Warn your friends, family, or neighbors that the “open primaries” label is intentionally deceptive.
• Share the word that Prop 1 is an attempt to overthrow Idaho’s electoral system and institute Ranked-Choice Voting.

Credits

GOP Majority, Stop Idaho RINOs (https://stopidahorinos.com/)

Sample Primary Ballots (Jonathan Rawles)

August 2022 Special Election Results, Qin Shui Wan, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

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