Attorney General Raúl Labrador filed a petition today with the Idaho Supreme Court challenging a ballot initiative promoted as the “Open Primary Initiative.” The petition for a writ of prohibition or writ of mandate addresses two main issues with the initiative.
First, despite a prior ruling from the Idaho Supreme Court that the initiative does not propose an “open primary,” proponents systematically called it that to obtain necessary signatures. They described their initiative through various platforms, including websites, signage, social media, trainings, canvassing efforts, and interviews. The Idaho Supreme Court had ruled last year that the initiative “does not describe an ‘open primary’ system.”
Second, the initiative proposes changes to both the primary election and general election voting systems, violating the single-subject rule for legislation and initiatives. Specifically, it would eliminate party primaries and institute a ranked-choice voting system for general elections involving multiple ballot counts and vote shifting between candidates.
“The so-called ‘Open Primary Initiative’ has nothing to do with open primaries, and thousands of Idahoans were misled into signing the petition by signature collectors who misrepresented the initiative. Last year, the Idaho Supreme Court refused to let the initiative’s sponsors call it an ‘Open Primary Initiative’ and unambiguously ruled that it does not propose an open primary system. The sponsors have not only ignored the Court’s direction; they have snubbed their nose at the Court’s ruling,” said Attorney General Labrador. “The sponsors also buried ranked-choice voting in the initiative and again misrepresented it to voters. Idaho law does not allow such abuse of the initiative process. It is unacceptable and jeopardizes the integrity of both the Court’s prior ruling and the initiative process itself.”
The petition states: “An ‘open primary’ is what Idaho had before 2011,” but “[t]he initiative and the old system have essentially nothing in common.” It continues: “the initiative’s sponsors disregarded the Court’s ruling and sold it as ‘open primaries’ anyway. By doing so, they violated Idaho Code § 34-1815 and voided signatures supporting their initiative.”
The petition requests that the Idaho Supreme Court order Secretary of State Phil McGrane to reject this ballot measure on these grounds.