Prop 1 would have remade Idaho elections. Voters rejected it by a wide margin

Idaho voters roundly rejected Proposition 1 on Election Day, stopping a measure that would have transformed the state’s elections.

With more than 850,000 votes counted as of 8 a.m. Wednesday, only 30.3% of residents had voted yes – and more than two-thirds voted no.

Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, the initiative’s proponents, Idahoans for Open Primaries, admitted defeat.

“We are full of pride that we dared to take on the biggest structural problem facing Idaho: the closed primaries,” said Luke Mayville, the group’s spokesperson, in an emailed statement. “It’s never easy to reform a broken system. But one thing is clear to us after talking with hundreds of thousands of voters: Even if Idahoans didn’t support our specific proposal, the vast majority believe the closed primary system is broken. It’s only a matter of time before Idahoans demand reform.”

Republicans, who came out strongly against the measure, were confident Tuesday night that it would not pass.

Republican Party Chair Dorothy Moon told supporters she had not seen grassroots supporters work so hard “since the Tea Party days.”

If Prop 1 had passed, the measure would have made two big changes to the state’s elections. Instead of the closed Republican primary (and separate, but open, Democratic primary), all voters would have participated in a single “blanket” primary. Currently, unaffiliated voters – of which there are about 284,000 – cannot vote in the GOP primary. Voters would have picked their preferred candidate, and the top four would have advanced to the general election.

In November, voters could have ranked the candidates in each race. Their second and third choices would become important if any of their preferred picks were eliminated for insufficient votes.

The new format would have applied to all partisan elections except for U.S. president and precinct committeemen.

The measure’s proponents, the Idahoans for Open Primaries coalition, amassed a $5.5 million war chest this year, ran ads on TV and social media, held town hall meetings and went door to door to persuade voters to vote yes.

But the group faced near-unified opposition from Republicans in office, who joined forces to sound alarms about their fears that the changes would reduce the party’s power or complicate elections. Groups opposed to the measure – including a political action committee called Idaho Rising, run by House Speaker Mike Moyle, R-Star – spent more than $420,000.

Many proponents of the measure said the Idaho Republican Party has become captured by the far right since the GOP closed its primary, in 2012, and viewed the shift to a broader primary as a recipe to make election outcomes more representative of the general population.

“I think that everyone should have the opportunity to vote however they want, whenever they want,” Katherine Bueno, 31 of Meridian, told the Idaho Statesman on Tuesday after voting “yes.”

Many elected Republicans have viewed the proposal as an attack on their power.

Moon wrote numerous opinions condemning the proposal. The party’s platform endorses restricting or entirely eliminating ballot initiatives.

“We want to beat Prop 1 big time,” Moon told the crowd at an Election night watch party.

Other GOP-aligned groups, like the Idaho Freedom Foundation, also strongly opposed it.

“I voted no, because I think it’s just full of gamesmanship,” Glen Wallace, 69 of Meridian, told the Statesman on Tuesday.

Republican Attorney General Raúl Labrador was an outspoken opponent of the reform and made several failed attempts to keep it off the ballot through litigation. Gov. Brad Little also said he opposed it.

But an earlier generation of Republican leaders supported the reform, pointing to broader shifts in the Republican coalition. Former Republican Gov. Butch Otter favored it, as did former Republican House Speaker Bruce Newcomb, who is the treasurer of Idahoans for Open Primaries.

At the Republican watch party, Moon noted that some Republicans had “strayed” in supporting Proposition 1, joking that the party would “rub their heads with our knuckles” before bringing them back into the fold.

The Idaho Democratic Party did not take a public position on the measure.

The proponents’ lead organizer, Mayville, is the head of Reclaim Idaho, a reform-minded organization that spearheaded the successful 2018 ballot measure to expand Medicaid in Idaho.

More than 75,000 people signed a petition to get the proposal on the ballot this year, beating the minimum requirement by about 12,000 signatures. Idaho law allows citizens to skip the Legislature and enact laws themselves if they get at least 6% of voters in 18 of the 35 legislative districts to sign, and then get majority approval on Election Day.

Elected Republicans in recent years have become wary of ballot measures, passing laws that make it harder to bring initiatives before voters. The 2018 Medicaid expansion, in particular, has been a thorn in the side of conservatives, who adamantly oppose broader welfare programs. The Legislature this year considered a bill that could have undone the expansion.

In 2019, Little vetoed a bill to make the signature requirements more onerous. A year later, lawmakers added a requirement that initiatives include financial statements. Another bill that year added a single-subject requirement for proposals, and required petitioners to report paid signature gatherers to the secretary of state. Then in 2021, lawmakers tried to require voter initiatives to get signatures from 6% of voters in every legislative district – a change that the Idaho Supreme Court blocked, ruling it violated residents’ rights.

Voters resoundingly emphasize voting requirements

Another change voters considered this election was whether to reinforce requirements in the Idaho Constitution that noncitizens cannot vote. It passed handily.

The alteration added language affirming that noncitizens cannot vote in “any election held within the state of Idaho.”

The Idaho Constitution and state laws already require citizenship for participation in government elections.

With more than 850,000 votes counted, the measure had support from 64.9% of voters.

Former Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa told the Idaho Statesman by phone that the amendment is gratuitous because local jurisdictions in Idaho are bound by law to abide by the state’s definition of a “qualified elector” – which requires citizenship. Altering that requirement – and allowing cities or school districts to define their voters as they choose – would require a change in state law.

“The possibility that the Idaho Legislature, who controls the qualifications of these other entities, would allow noncitizens to vote (in local elections) is extremely, extremely remote,” he said.

After receiving two-thirds support from both houses of the Idaho Legislature, amending the constitution required a simple majority to pass.