Idaho open primary supporters submit signatures

COEUR d’ALENE — Supporters of the Idaho open primary ballot initiative have submitted more than 95,000 signatures to county clerks across the state.

To get the initiative on the November ballot, supporters need to gather valid signatures from at least 6% of registered voters statewide, or about 63,000 voters in total, as well as 6% of voters in 18 different legislative districts. Members of the Idahoans for Open Primaries coalition believe they have collected valid signatures well in excess of the state’s requirements.

“We are confident that these signatures will secure open primaries a place on the ballot,” Ashley Prince, the coalition’s campaign manager, said in a news release. “And we look forward to thousands more voter conversations before November.”

In Kootenai County, four full-time elections office employees are working on petition processing, as well as two temporary employees who have returned to work during the May primary election cycle.

“We do not know how many signatures have been submitted, as we have a medium stack of petitions yet to be scanned in and processed,” Elections Manager Asa Gray said Thursday. “I know our county has already verified thousands of signatures throughout the last several months.”

Each page of petition signatures is first scanned into the state voter system before an elections office employee begins processing it.

To process a signature, the employee searches for the voter’s record, then compares the name and address to make sure it’s the same person. If the name and address match, the voter’s signature is then compared to the voter registration on file. If the signatures match, the signature on the petition is verified and deemed valid.

A signature can be deemed invalid if the person who signed is not registered to vote, if the person is registered at a different address than the one written on the petition or if the signature doesn’t match the one on file. Duplicate signatures on the petition are invalid. Errors on the petition can also render a signature invalid, such as missing information or a voter signing with a date outside the signature collection window.

Counties have until June 28 to verify the petition signatures, though Gray said he expects Kootenai County will complete the verification process by mid-June.

“Our office works diligently to process petition signatures in an expedient manner,” Gray said. “All signatures are reviewed by human eyes, not a computer program, and we perform our due diligence in completing this process.”

Gray encouraged voters whose signatures have changed over time to keep their voter registration updated with their current signatures.

“This not only affects you when you sign a petition, but it also matters if you choose to vote via absentee ballot,” he said.

If the open primary initiative qualifies for the November election, it will take a simple majority of voters to pass.

The ballot initiative would eliminate Idaho’s party primaries and instead create a system where all candidates participate in a top-four primary and voters may vote on all candidates. The top four vote-earners for each office would advance to the general election.

The measure would also create an instant runoff or ranked choice voting system for the general election. In that system, voters choose their favorite candidate and may then rank up to three other candidates in order of preference.

If no candidate gets a majority when the votes are counted, the candidate who received the fewest votes is eliminated. Those who picked the losing candidate as their first choice would have their votes redirected to their second-choice candidate, and so on, until one candidate has earned a majority vote.

Supporters say open primaries will give a voice to the more than 275,000 unaffiliated voters throughout Idaho and give all voters more say over the outcome of elections.

“Idaho’s closed primary system has disenfranchised thousands of voters, leading to growing dissatisfaction with the electoral process, party extremism and Idahoans feeling like their voices don’t matter,” Bruce Newcomb, former Republican speaker of the House, said in a news release. “But don’t just take my word for it. There are 95,000 other Idahoans who agree. We’ve seen support from voters across the state because this reaches beyond partisan politics and offers the chance to give Idaho voters more choice and more voice.”