OPINION: Idaho voters face a stark 'them-or-us' choice in November
Bryan Smith, an ultra-right Republican and vice chair of the extremist Idaho Freedom Foundation, understands that the Open Primaries Initiative will break the stranglehold his hardline branch of the GOP has over who gets elected to public office in Idaho. He let the cat out of the bag in August of last year when he said: “If Idaho gets ranked choice voting, we're finished. It’s that simple." Smith knows that getting rid of the closed Republican primary will allow every Idaho voter to have a say in choosing our leaders. No longer will the most extreme candidates have the best chance of winning the low-turnout primary and then coasting to victory in November.
Senator Dan Foreman in District 6 illustrates how a small minority of voters can game the closed primary system. Last May, Foreman won the GOP primary with the votes of just 9.39% of the registered voters in District 6. In 2022, he won with only 8.8%. He was by far the most extreme candidate both times. Foreman has called for women who get abortions, and doctors who perform them, to face first-degree murder charges. He petulantly told a member of the Nez Perce Tribe to “go back where you came from.”
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