Proposition 1 is getting a lot of attention from Idaho voters. That’s because the ballot initiative offers to improve our elections.

If passed, it would replace a law allowing multiple closed political party primaries. That law currently excludes about a third of Idaho voters from taking part in those primaries.

Prop 1 would also introduce to Idaho a system known as Ranked-choice Voting (RCV). Voting in Maine congressional and presidential races and primaries has been by Ranked-choice since 2018. Alaska went even further in 2020 when voters there approved RCV and a single “top 4”open primary with the 4 candidates with the most votes advancing to the November election. Alaska’s system is the basis for the plan that Prop 1 calls for.

Maine’s non-partisan League of Women Voters (MLWV) argues RCV gives voters more meaningful choices, and reduces negative campaigning and the influence of money in elections. “Candidates running in ranked choice elections must ask for second and, sometimes, third choice rankings,” information on Maine’s LWV website points out. “Voters are less likely to rank a candidate highly who is negative toward their preferred candidate,” the League claims.

The MLWV contends that anti-negativity bias goes further, arguing, “Campaigns and special interest groups spend a lot of money on negative advertising. By making negative advertising less effective, ranked choice voting reduces the need for, and influence of, money in politics.”

The roots of Prop 1 lie in a conflict that’s been around for at least the last 60 years, a fight between moderate and extremist Republicans. The latter won a battle in 2011 when they voted in the current closed primary law.

The argument they used to get it passed was basically, how could it be legal, or even fair, for a (horror of horrors!!) DEMOCRAT, or even a Libertarian or a Constitution Party member in Idaho, to vote to help select which Republican candidate would be on the ballot in the general election?

That complaint seemed to many to be reasonable, at the time. That is, it seemed so as long as nobody mentioned that all Idaho taxpayers foot the bill for those closed primaries and there are almost 30% of Idaho voters who don’t belong to any political party so they’re blocked from even voting in the closed primaries.

The result of closing Idaho primary elections has been a continuing decline in voter turnout. It’s also been a shift to a minority of voters electing legislators increasingly more extreme than the majority of Idaho voters.

Prop 1’s most vocal opponents, the Idaho Republican party’s radical Right faction, or as I prefer in this context, the “NO” brigade, have devoted tons of newsprint and gigabytes of data attacking Ranked-choice voting. Have you noticed, though, how they say little to nothing in defense of their closed primaries?

Is that because there is little they can say to defend that defective system? Or is it because they represent only a minority of voters and are desperate to preserve a system that gives that minority an advantage in selecting who advances to the general election ballot?

Republicans have controlled the Legislature for more than 60 years and that’s not going to change if Prop 1 passes. Idaho has always been a conservative state.

What might change is which Republicans would win in more civil elections in Idaho going forward. That’s why so many Republican leaders, people like former Governor Butch Otter, have spoken out in favor of Prop 1. Otter is hardly the sort of out-of-state Liberal the “NO” brigade is trying to convince Idahoans is backing the initiative. More than a hundred other Republican notables have gone public with Otter to voice their support for the initiative.

Isn’t it time to end Idaho’s closed primaries? If you think so, vote YES on Prop 1.