Before George Washington left office after 8 years as America’s first president, he issued a dark statement. Political parties, he warned, if given too much power, would “become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people...”

That appears to be what’s happening here in Idaho as the head of the Idaho Republican Party campaigns against Proposition 1. Prop 1 is the initiative on Tuesday’s ballot that would finally end closed primary elections in Idaho.

Full disclosure here. I’m voting YES on Prop 1. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than the closed primary system we have now.

Washington believed citizens were the source of a government’s power and rightfulness. Further, he held that the government in a democracy is created and sustained by the consent of the people. That consent can’t be given when people are unfairly prohibited from voting.

There has been more than enough disinformation propagated by the Idaho GOP leadership about Prop 1. First, there’s a claim Alaska is about to vote out its law which closely resembles Prop 1.

The fact is that Alaskans will likely retain their open primaries, ranked-choice voting system. The initiative to overturn that system has struggled to raise money and win support. At last report the effort has raised only $120,000. That’s only half what was spent in at least two idaho legislative races this year and is far from enough to wage such a campaign in a state as large as Alaska.

Prop 1 has been labeled a “jungle primary,” as if that’s a bad thing. Louisiana runs such a primary and reliably votes Republican for president. If Prop 1 passes it will be the fourth state with that system.

Here’s an example of how Prop 1 can be good for Idaho voters. Representative Julianne Young, R-Blackfoot, and challenger Ben Fuhriman, R-Shelley, ran for District 30, House seat B in the May 21 primary. The result was the closest legislative race in the state.

The race was so close that all votes cast for the two in their sprawling district–all of Bingham and Butte counties–had to be recounted. Fuhriman beat the incumbent, though by only 4 votes.

The result was a major news story in Eastern Idaho when the final vote count was completed. That was in late June, more than a month after the primary election.

The real story, though, didn’t make news at all. That story was the number of people who didn’t vote.

In the state’s most closely contested campaign for a seat in the legislature, more than two-thirds of the voters didn’t even go to the polls! That’s not news because that’s become the new normal given Idaho’s closed primary elections.

Fewer than 16% of District 30 voters determined that Fuhriman’s name, not Young’s, will be on the general election ballot on Tuesday. More than 22% of the district’s voters, those registered Unaffiliated, were prohibited by current Idaho law from voting for either one in the May primary election.

That’s because those Unaffiliated voters have declined the opportunity to declare as a matter of public record that they’ll vote only for candidates from one political party. The Unaffiliated voters, by the way, along with the rest of us, chip in their hard-earned tax dollars that pay for the election, part of which they can’t, by law, even vote in.

Whatever the intent of the legislature was when it passed the law that allows organized political parties in this state to hold closed primaries, the result has unfortunately been continued low voter turnout.

Low participation in elections that are so important in our democracy has produced a legislature that’s too frequently tone-deaf to the problems of Idaho citizens. Underfunding schools while shifting taxes on to homeowners is just one glaring example of how a legislature picked through a closed primary system has ignored the needs of Idaho citizens.

Prop 1 will end Idaho’s closed primary elections.

Isn’t it time to go back to open primaries? Isn’t it time to hold elections that invite all legally registered voters to the polls? If you think so, please vote YES on Prop 1.