A twist in the primary
COEUR d’ALENE — Forget everything you previously knew about the primary races in Idaho this year — there has been a new twist.
Now, anyone — regardless of their current party affiliation — can vote in the upcoming Republican presidential primary on Tuesday as long as they are willing to sign a Republican affiliation form at the polls.
Previously, Kootenai County Clerk Jim Brannon said, only unaffiliated voters could change parties until the day of voting and all others would have to switch parties back in December of 2015 to be eligible to vote in the Republicans’ closed presidential primary.
“There has been a lot of confusion about this year’s primary races,” Brannon said Wednesday, adding the confusion is statewide and especially in Boise. “This thing went crazy down there.”
Brannon said because of that confusion, the state recently held a meeting with county clerks to clarify the rules.
The confusion arose in part when the Legislature decided for the first time to split the Republican presidential primary away from the statewide Republican primary on May 17. Now anyone wanting to vote for the Republican presidential candidate can vote for one on Tuesday, and then come back to the polls on May 17 to vote for all other Republican candidates that are running for county, legislative and congressional offices in November.
“What we have been told is to forget everything we know about the primary elections this year,” Brannon said. “Anybody can now come into the presidential primary and change their party to Republican and vote.”
However, if someone other than a Republican wants to vote in the statewide Republican primary on May 17, they will still have to switch to the Republican Party by March 11 next week.
“The only rule now is that voters have to change parties by the end of the candidate filing period on March 11,” Brannon said.
The filing period for candidates wanting to run for Congress, the state Legislature, county commissioner, sheriff or prosecutor started Monday and will end on March 11.
Brannon gave an example of how someone from another party who wants to vote in the Republican primaries this year.
“Let’s say a Democrat likes John Kasich; they could come down to the polls on Tuesday and fill out a Republican affiliation form and vote for him,” he said. “That is their right and they can do that.”
Then the Democrat can choose to remain a Republican until the statewide Republican primaries on May 17. However, that voter would not be able to participate in the Democratic caucus on March 22, said Paula Neils, chair of the Kootenai County Democratic Central Committee.
Brannon said there are no laws to prevent someone from participating in both parties’ presidential nominating processes.
“The only catch is they have to sign the affiliation form on the Republican primaries because those are closed primaries,” he said, adding the affiliation forms are a matter of public record.
While Brannon said he doesn’t think there will be a lot of party crossover voting, it does happen because there have been many elections decided during the Republican primaries in the past.
For instance, if the Democratic Party decides not to field a candidate for a certain seat, then whichever Republican is nominated in the primary will automatically be elected to that office unless a write-in candidate emerges and runs successfully for that office. So far this year, only one Democrat has announced to run for a seat in the statewide races. Here are the candidates that have filed as of Wednesday afternoon:
National
United States Senator
• Republican Mike Crapo
United States Representative — District 1
• Democrat Staniela Nikolova
• Republican Raul R. Labrador
United States Representative — District 2
• Republican Mike Simpson
Legislative District 2
State Representative, Position A
• Republican Fritz Wiedenhoff
State Representative, Position B
• Republican Eric Redman
Legislative District 3
State Senator
• Republican Bob Nonini
State Representative, Position A
• Republican Ron Mendive
State Representative, Position B
• Republican Don Cheatham
• Republican Peter Riggs
Legislative District 4
State Senator
• Republican Mary Souza
State Representative, Position A
• Republican Arthur B. Macomber
• Republican Lucas "Luke" Malek
State Representative, Position B
• Republican Paul Amador
• Republican Kathleen Sims
Kootenai County Commissioner District 2
• Republican Chris Fillios
• Republican David Stewart
Kootenai County Commissioner District 3
• Republican Leslie Duncan
• Republican Fred Meckel
Kootenai County Prosecutor
• Republican Barry McHugh
Kootenai County Sheriff
• Republican John Green