Idaho’s highest court has dismissed the state’s bid to stop a ballot initiative that would create open primaries and ranked-choice voting if approved by voters this November.
Labrador filed the challenge in July with the Idaho Supreme Court, alleging that Proposition 1’s sponsors misled the public and fraudulently obtained signatures that were used to qualify the measure for the upcoming general election. He also claimed that the voter initiative violates the state constitution’s requirement that each law should address only one single subject.
Without hearing oral arguments on the issue, the court dismissed the case on purely procedural grounds.
“Allegations of fraud in the gathering of signatures in the initiative process are serious,” Justice Robyn Brody wrote for the unanimous majority. “Those allegations, however, must be adjudicated in the district court in the first instance.”
“As for the Attorney General’s assertion that the Initiative violates the Idaho Constitution’s one-subject rule, that issue will not be ripe for review, unless and until, Idaho voters approve the Initiative at the general election in November,” she added.
“We do not reach the merits of this case, and the Attorney General is free to pursue his claims that the signatures are invalid in the appropriate district court,” the opinion concluded.
An Idaho law enacted in 2011 makes partisan primaries closed by default, but individual political parties may file paperwork with the state to allow unaffiliated voters to vote in their primaries. The Democratic Party has since opened its primary election to non-Democrats, while the Republican, Libertarian, and Constitution Party primaries remain closed.
If Proposition 1 passes with a simple majority of the vote this November, it would change Idaho primary elections by placing candidates from all political parties on one single open ballot. All registered voters would be able to vote for any candidate, regardless of political party affiliation.
The top four vote-earners from the primary would then advance to the general election, where voters would rank them by preference.
In the general election, the candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated. When a voter’s top choice falls out of the race, their second choice would get the vote in the next round. The process would repeat until a candidate wins a majority of votes.
Idahoans for Open Primaries, a Boise-based organization behind Proposition 1, said the change will ensure all voters have a voice and compel candidates to answer to a broader section of voters in order to win elections.
The initiative’s opponents, including the state’s Republican legislators, argue that a complicated run-off voting system will confuse voters and make elections more vulnerable to fraud.
The Idaho Attorney General’s Office said it’s weighing its options.
“We appreciate the court’s reasoned analysis of the issues at hand,” a spokesperson for Labrador said in a statement to media outlets. “We are disappointed that the court did not take up the single subject issue at this time, but are confident that the people of Idaho and the courts will eventually reject this clearly unconstitutional petition.”
