Idaho AG Raúl Labrador sues to stop open primaries initiative, teeing up legal fight
A coalition aiming to end the Idaho Republican Party’s closed primary system and implement ranked choice voting faces another hurdle for its November ballot initiative: a lawsuit from Attorney General Raúl Labrador.
Labrador petitioned the Idaho Supreme Court on Wednesday to throw out the measure that earlier this month secured enough signatures to qualify for the Nov. 5 general election. The attorney general argued the Idahoans for Open Primaries initiative violates the state constitution by addressing more than one subject, and that volunteers deceptively collected signatures from voters by not explaining the full effect of the measure.
Organizers, who collected nearly 75,000 verified signatures in recent months from voters, have long expected a challenge from Labrador, a Republican, who has been clear since its proposal that he opposes the initiative. The groups did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The measure would abolish the closed primary system, which Republicans have used for more than a decade, and replace it with a primary open to all voters that would determine the top-four candidates among all parties moving on to the general election. In the general election voters then would be allowed to rank their favored candidates in order of preference.
Labrador’s two-pronged challenge aims to stop the measure before it goes to voters. The lawsuit names as a defendant Secretary of State Phil McGrane, the state’s top election official who administers elections and is currently preparing a pamphlet with pro and con arguments about the initiative that is scheduled to be sent to voters before the election. McGrane’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We feel that the Supreme Court will look at this very seriously,” Labrador told reporters Wednesday. “And we’re hoping that they agree with the Office of Attorney General.”
Luke Mayville, a lead organizer of the initiative effort, previously said organizers “are confident the challenge will fail.”
“There’s nothing unconstitutional about giving all voters the right to participate in primary elections,” told the Statesman.
Organizers: GOP wants to keep ‘power’ over citizens
The initiative has been loudly opposed by some of the state’s most conservative politicians, including Dorothy Moon, who chairs the Idaho Republican Party. Organizers of the measure have said their opposition is an effort to cling to power.
Mayville previously told the Statesman that “powerful party insiders and special interest groups” oppose the measure “because they know that it will give power to ordinary voters to choose their own leaders.”
Other prominent Republicans and former state leaders, like former Governor Butch Otter, have rallied behind the measure, arguing that it would give a wider spectrum of Idahoans a say in choosing their leaders and select more candidates who have broad appeal. Current officials like McGrane and Gov. Brad Little have so far refrained from taking public positions on the measure.
McGrane wrote in a letter this month that implementing the measure, if it succeeds, could cost $25 million or more because of the expense of new voting tabulation systems, according to several news reports.
The Idaho Supreme Court last year forced Labrador to rewrite the measure’s ballot titles — which the attorney general is responsible for crafting — because justices concluded it was likely to prejudice voters against it, according to previous Statesman reporting.
‘Deceptive practices,’ AG Raul Labrador says
In his lawsuit, Labrador argued the initiative’s organizers have deliberately focused on the open primary aspect of their measure in their communications with the public, while deemphasizing ranked choice voting.
“They have continuously used deceptive practices in gathering signatures,” Labrador said Wednesday. The lawsuit includes affidavits from two Idahoans who said they were not told by volunteers about all aspects of the petition when they signed it.
The measure’s organizers called it the “The Open Primaries Initiative.” On its website, under a “Get the Facts” page, the group explains the effect the measure would have on closed primaries and on ranked choice voting in general elections. The website also has a link to the secretary of state’s 18-page document about the initiative, which explains what it would do and details the relevant laws it would change.
Labrador also argued the measure violates the single-subject rule of the Idaho Constitution, which requires laws to stay focused on a single topic. Labrador said the changes to primary elections and general elections were two different alterations. Organizers of the measure have argued they encompass the same fundamental concept: how voters select their leaders in elections.
“I think it’s time for the Supreme Court to make a definitive ruling on our single subject jurisprudence,” Labrador said.