Split primary causes confusion on both sides

COEUR d’ALENE — It’s not just the Republicans who are confused about this year’s caucus and primary elections.

“The Democrats are just as confused as the Republicans,” said Paula Neils, chair of the Kootenai County Democrats, explaining how her party is using the caucus system to select its candidates for this year’s general election in November.

Neils said the Democrats are starting to talk about doing it differently to reduce some of the confusion.

“A lot of us are thinking maybe it’s better to simply have a primary,” she said.

Neils said the Republicans have caused a lot of confusion by splitting their presidential primary away from their traditional May primary. She said they also worked to close their primary, which is causing even more confusion among voters in both parties.

“They were the ones who were so adamant they wanted their primaries closed — they even went to court to do it,” she said. “Now they are bending the rules to make it easier to vote in their primary.”

Neils is referring to a decision that was made recently to allow any voters — regardless of their current party affiliation — to switch and affiliate as a Republican to vote in the closed Republican Presidential Primary next Tuesday. Prior to that decision, the deadline to affiliate with the GOP in order to vote in their presidential primary was in December 2015.

She said trying to keep all that straight is confusing to many voters, who wind up going to the Kootenai County Elections Office to get answers.

“But when they go in and say they are a Democrat and they want to vote, they are told they don’t have to vote,” Neils said, adding that isn’t always the case because they may have a school levy election they are eligible to vote in. “I get five or six phone calls a day from people who went to vote and were told to call me.”

The Democratic Caucus is run by the party itself and does not involve the county elections office. The caucus will be held March 22 in Boswell Hall on the North Idaho College Campus. Neils said the doors will open at 4:30 p.m. and the caucusing will begin promptly at 6 p.m., and anyone who arrives after 6 will not be admitted.

Neils said the notion that a Democrat could vote in the Republican primary and participate in the caucus is simply not true.

“They could try, but whether they inadvertently voted or not, they will not be allowed to caucus,” she said, explaining that every caucus participant will be asked if they voted in the Republican primary. “If they say yes, we will have to tell them no. They can only observe because they have already voted.”

Neils said the event will last a few hours, but she is going to try and keep the process rolling.

“I hope it doesn’t last past 9 p.m., but it will likely go until 10 p.m.,” She said. “But I am going to work to get out of there as soon as I possibly can.”