New bill proposes to move deadline for switching party affiliation

COEUR d’ALENE — The Idaho Legislature is considering another primary election bill which, for voters who plan to vote Republican, further complicates this spring’s two primary elections.

The new bill, SB 1195, proposes to move the deadline for switching party affiliation prior to voting in the upcoming May 17 primary election. The bill would move the current deadline for affiliating with the Republican Party from March 12 to Feb 12.

Those voters who are officially affiliated with a party other than the Republican Party have already missed the Dec. 9, 2015, deadline to affiliate and participate in the Republican presidential primary race.

The Idaho Legislature voted last year to separate the Republican presidential primary elections from all of the other statewide and local primary races that are set for May 17 this year.

The Republican Party uses a primary election system to elect the party’s candidates for the general elections in November. Historically the Republican party has selected all of its general election candidates, including presidential candidates, in one election held in May.

When the Legislature voted to separate the presidential primary, lawmakers said they felt the earlier presidential primaries would attract more presidential candidates to campaign in Idaho.

Democratic lawmakers opposed the estimated $2 million change because they said Idaho taxpayers were being asked to fund a closed election.

The Democratic Party does not require voters to affiliate with it to participate in its caucus system, which it uses to elect its party’s presidential candidate.

Because the Republican Party’s primaries are only open to voters who have officially affiliated with the Republican Party, the party affiliation deadlines are important for those who want to participate in both Republican primaries.

To further complicate matters, only those voters who have previously affiliated with a party other than the Republican Party have to concern themselves with the affiliation deadlines.

Voters who are unaffiliated with any party can affiliate with the Republican Party and participate in that party’s primaries right up to election day.

According to the Associated Press, Chief Deputy Secretary of State Tim Hurst told the Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday that current law allows people to register as Republican during Idaho's new March 8 presidential primary election and then switch to another party by March 12 to vote under a different party affiliation in the May 17 primary for state and local offices.

If the Legislature passes the new Feb. 12 affiliation deadline and it is implemented immediately it would force Republican presidential primary voters to also vote on the Republican ticket in the May 17 primaries. There would be no time to unaffiliate or switch parties to vote in a different party’s primary.

"We are moving it up quickly, because the election is coming up pretty quick," Hurst said. "It just means people need to make a choice and they need to make the choice earlier."

Roughly half of all Idaho voters are unaffiliated and rarely change party registration, Hurst said.

The bill would also prohibit write-in candidates from participating in the March 8 presidential primary, but not the November general election.

"We've already got 13 people on there. I don't think we need any more," Hurst said, referring to the number of Republican presidential candidates currently on the ballot.

"We talked to the Republican Party about this; they're in favor."

Kootenai County doesn’t have a senator on the State Affairs Committee, but Reps. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton; Kathy Sims, R-Coeur d’Alene; and Don Cheatham, R-Post Falls, sit on the State Affairs Committee in the House.

“We haven’t seen that legislation yet,” Barbieri said in an interview on Tuesday. “I have been waiting to see that one.”

Cheatham and Sims could not be reached for comment.

The Senate State Affairs Committee approved the bill on Monday, and it now must go before the full committee for hearing before moving to the Senate floor for a vote. Then the bill must make its way through the House, with roughly three weeks until the newly established Feb. 12 deadline.

Kootenai County Clerk Jim Brannon said his office began looking into the new legislation on Tuesday afternoon. He said that was the first he had heard of the change.