Supporting Fair Elections

Most people are surprised to learn that a small minority of Idaho voters effectively decide the majority of our elections in partisan primaries. That’s right, most of our elections are decided in the primaries! Because the majority of Idaho’s legislative districts and all of our congressional districts lean so heavily in favor of one of the two major parties, whoever wins the primary of the dominant party will win the general election. As such, Idaho’s closed primaries block 270,000 registered independent voters from participating in the most important elections. Open primaries give all voters a fair chance to choose their elected leaders.

For nearly one hundred years, Idaho had open primaries. This changed in 2011 when the Idaho legislature closed them. This law required voters to register with a party in order to participate in the primary election. Restoring open primaries prioritizes individual Idaho voters over political party politics. 

Restoring open primaries will make room for candidates who enjoy broad support. Because fewer voters can participate in closed primaries, elected officials have become increasingly insulated from the average voter and feel less accountability to them.

Restoring open primaries is a way to support and defend representative government - one that is of the people, by the people and for the people. In an open primary, every registered voter can meaningfully participate by choosing the candidate they prefer and know that their voice will be heard.  

The initiative creates a nonpartisan primary where all voters, not just those registered to a party, may participate. All candidates for an office will appear on one ballot and the top four vote getters will move on to the general election, which will consist of instant-runoff voting (aka ranked choice voting) where all voters pick their top candidate and then rank the other candidates in order of preference if they choose. 

In the instant runoff, the last place candidate is eliminated and each vote for that candidate is transferred to the voter’s second choice. This process repeats until two candidates are left and the candidate with the most votes wins. This type of voting helps ensure that the winner has the support of a broad coalition of voters.

*As described in MWEG's Official Statement and the OPI  website linked below

“We believe that we should always seek to unify instead of divide. More and more during campaign season, constituents see two candidates from the major political parties going after one another with the intent of denigrating the other individual so voters will instead vote for them. However, when voters participate in a ranked choice system, as is proposed by the Open Primaries Initiative, the focus is not on which candidate is the lesser of two evils, which is what voters often feel they’re choosing based on the constant attacks they’ve heard from the candidates. Instead, there exists an incentive for candidates to appeal to a broader audience by seeking second or third-choice votes, thereby encouraging more positive and issue-oriented campaigns.” 

From Cindy Wilson’s op-ed in the Idaho State Journal linked below