Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has filed a petition with the Idaho Supreme Court in a challenge to a ballot initiative that’s been, in his opinion, deceptively and inaccurately promoted as the “Open Primary Initiative.” According to a news release, the petition for a writ of prohibition or writ of mandate addresses two issues with the initiative.
First, despite a prior ruling from the Idaho Supreme Court that the initiative does not propose an “open primary,” Idahoans for Open Primaries and its members systematically called it that to obtain the necessary signatures to support the initiative. They repeatedly described their initiative to citizens through their websites, signage, social media, trainings, canvassing efforts, and in interviews and statements that the proposed initiative would implement “open primaries” when the Idaho Supreme Court ruled last year that the initiative “does not describe an ‘open primary’ system.”
Second, the initiative makes distinct changes to the primary election and separately to the voting system used in general elections, which violates the single-subject rule for legislation and initiatives. This initiative would eliminate party primaries and also institute what the AG says is a complex and multi-stage ranked-choice voting system for the general election, involving multiple ballot counts and vote shifting between candidates that lacks basic transparency.
As the brief explains, “An ‘open primary’ is what Idaho had before 2011,” but “the initiative and the old system have essentially nothing in common.”
The petition for a writ of prohibition or mandate requests the Idaho Supreme Court order the Idaho Secretary of State to reject the initiative on those grounds and disallow the initiative on the November ballot.
