OPINION: More choice and better elections with open primaries

For military veterans, our lives changed the moment we raised our right hand and swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. That oath to the Constitution is a lifelong commitment to our fellow citizens, to preserve our American system of government, and to strive always toward a more perfect Union. 

In honor of Veterans Day, Veterans for Idaho Voters is publishing a series of articles to explain how the Open Primaries Initiative gives Idahoans more freedom of choice that will result in better leadership.

Veterans for Idaho Voters, or V4IV,  is a cross-partisan and independent group of Idaho military veterans that advocates for fair elections, citizen initiatives, civil politics, and sensible policies. We are Republicans, Independents and Democrats working together — just like we did during our service days — to support open primaries initiative passage.

Elections are the centerpiece of representative government and determine how we, the people, consent to be governed. However, the U.S. Constitution does not prescribe how elections should be run. That is each state’s responsibility. As a result, we have 50 different ways to run elections. 

From Idaho’s first primary in 1931 until 2011, voters of any party registration and unaffiliated Independents, could choose any party’s primary ballot. An independent could select a Republican ballot. A Republican could select a Democratic ballot. This ‘open’ primary structure gave voters more choices but it did not allow the voter to select a Republican for Secretary of State and then another party for Attorney General. Once you picked a party ballot you were locked into that party’s candidates.

However, the open system slammed shut in 2011 when a small group sued to close Idaho’s primaries. In 2022, the Republican, Constitution, and Libertarian parties had closed ballots. The Democratic ballot was open to any registered voter. 

Today’s closed primaries break with Idaho tradition and are filled with complex eligibility rules that make it harder to vote how you want. If you are registered with one party but want to vote on another closed party ballot, then you need to change your registration more than 10 weeks before the primary. An unaffiliated Independent voter can select a closed ballot by declaring a party affiliation on election day; however, this defeats the very idea of being Independent. And if a voter takes an unaffiliated ballot that person has no vote in most contests because there are very few unaffiliated candidates.

The Secretary of State’s election data explains the impact. Primary votes cast declined by 8% between 2010 and 2012. Looking back over 22 primary cycles since 1980, the three worst years for turnout were 2012, 2014 and 2016. In 1980, 31% of Idaho’s voting age population cast a primary vote but less than 15% voted in 2016.

It’s clear that closed primaries restrict voter access, are less competitive and winners lack broad support. Fortunately, the Open Primaries Initiative (OPI) will make Idaho’s primaries more accessible and more competitive. 

First, the OPI will give voters more choice. Rather than receive a primary ballot with just one party’s candidates, our future primary ballots will list all candidates running for that office. For example, the State Senate race on your primary ballot might have two candidates with Republican affiliation, a Libertarian, a Democrat and an unaffiliated Independent candidate. Unaffiliated voters will have a vote in every contest without having to “join” a party.

Second, the OPI only applies to county, legislative, statewide and federal offices. City, judicial and special districts will run their elections unchanged. The OPI also does not apply to Presidential primaries, where the current system stays in place.

A third change is to level the playing field between party-backed and Independent candidates. In the old system, Independents were both excluded from May primaries and had an extra hurdle to gather signatures to be included on the November general election ballot. With the OPI, every candidate is treated equally. The high school basketball coach who served two tours in Iraq but prefers being an Independent, she could now run. Your mail carrier who is reliable as a clock and served 25 years in the Idaho Air National Guard, he now has a shot.

Fourth, the OPI does not restrict the parties. They can still hold conventions to select their preferred candidates or censure wayward members. However, taxpayers, particularly the 27% of Idahoans who vote Independent, are no longer obligated to pay for party primaries. 

In summary, under the OPI, the people, not the parties, choose the candidate. An Idahoans’ primary election duty becomes simpler: do some homework on the candidates, pick one for each race, and grab your ‘I VOTED’ sticker when you are done. The four candidates with the most votes in each race move ahead to the November general election where the winner is selected by instant runoff. More on that in the next Veterans for Idaho Voters article.

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Todd Achilles, of Boise, is an Army veteran; Paul Cunningham, of Boise, is a Navy veteran; Marv Hagedorn, of Eagle, is a Navy veteran; Scott Syme, of Wilder, is an Army veteran; and Kevin Trainor, of Twin Falls, is a Marine Corps veteran.