Proposition 1 Facts
Idaho has a simple, trustworthy, fair & transparent election system. But Proposition 1 seeks to replace this with a scheme that is confusing for voters, unfair to seniors, depends on computer algorithms and is far more costly.
Prop 1 is marketed as an easy and fair change to Idaho elections. But what it actually does is make voting far more confusing, far less transparent, puts your vote at risk of being trashed, and empowers out of state Progressive billionaires.
Proposition 1 makes two radical changes to the way we do elections in Idaho. First, it replaces our current primary elections with a new “jungle” style of primary. Second, it introduces a complex, expensive computer based scheme of voting, known as Ranked Choice Voting..
Radical Change #1: “Jungle” Primaries
Prop 1 seeks to implement a California-style jungle primary in which Democrats would help choose Republican candidates and vice versa. The top four candidates with the most votes would advance to the general election in a new Ranked-Choice-Voting system.
In a Jungle Primary, voters are often faced with an overwhelming list of candidates, without knowing who is a conservative and who is a progressive. For example, in a recent Alaska election, 48 candidates ran for one House seat!
Prop 1 activists claim that unaffiliated voters face obstacles to participation. This is a lie. In reality, unaffiliated voters can request and cast ballots in any party primary they choose.
The unstated objective of Proposition 1’s Jungle Primaries is to allow registered Democrats into Republican primaries, effectively transforming Idaho’s political environment into something more like California’s. The other goal is to destroy grassroots state political parties and enable big money influence on politicians open to the highest bidder. This is the reason why billionaires from out of state support Prop 1.
Radical Change #2: “Top 4 Ranked Choice Voting”
The Top 4 vote getters from the Jungle Primary would then enter a complicated and expensive scheme for the General Election known as Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).
Ranked-Choice-Voting involves a more complicated ballot where voters are required to rank all candidates, including those they find repugnant. The process involves three successive rounds of computer tabulation where the candidate with the least votes gets eliminated. Voters’ secondary and tertiary rankings are subsequently transferred and tabulated if their first pick was eliminated.
This scheme leads to weird results such as in Alaska, where a Democrat got elected even though the majority of votes were initially cast for Republicans. It also leads to up to 20% of votes being trashed for those voters who didn’t want to vote for a candidate who didn’t represent their values.
Due to it’s confusing nature and complexity, Ranked-Choice-Voting lowers voter turnout among seniors and newer voters and would cost around $40 million to implement according to Idaho Secretary of State, Phil McGrane.
Ranked-Choice-Voting has already been rejected by voters in other states. Alaska adopted this system in 2022 and an initiative is pending to repeal it. Make no mistake, whether it’s moms and dads trying to vote before they must pick up their kids, or workers trying to vote during their lunch break, thousands will leave the lines, give up, and be disenfranchised.