BOISE, Idaho — Idaho voters will be faced with a major ballot initiative on November 5, which would completely restructure the gem state’s primaries.
As it stands today, Idaho operates a closed-party primary, meaning voters can only cast a vote for the political party they are affiliated with. Essentially, a registered republican voter could not cast a vote for a democratic candidate and vice versa.
Proposition 1 would replace this system with an open primary format, meaning voters wouldn’t have to be affiliated with a political party to cast their vote. This would give Idaho’s nearly 270 thousand unaffiliated registered voters a chance to offer their voice in the primaries.
Under this initiative, the top four candidates who receive the highest amount of votes would advance to the general election.
The amount of signatures required to put a measure on the ballot in Idaho is at least 6% of registered voters.
The organization Open Primaries for Idaho accomplished that, collecting 97,000 signatures to put this initiative on the general election ballot.