The official title of the initiative behind this proposition is “Top-Four Primary and Ranked-Choice Voting System Initiative”. When you talk with people who are in favor of this proposition, they seem to intentionally avoid this title and simplify it down to open primaries, playing on the emotional response of being fair to everyone.
For me, this is a complex twist of deception using our emotional responses to muddy the water and create a deceptive simplification of what is actually happening. This is far more that simply “opening up” the primaries in Idaho. Reading deeper into what the Secretary of State reports to the Legislative Council it appears that this initiative will eliminate the need for political parties because all candidates are listed on one “Primary Ballot” with the top four candidates moving onto the “General Election”
Primaries have historically been when the various parties choose their candidate for the General Election in November, on Election Day. Top-Four Primaries would transform the election process away from what it has been. This is almost trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist. Rather than having separate Primaries that have been traditionally held, all candidates will be put onto one Primary Ballot with the top four candidates moving onto the General Election. Party affiliation is optional, and could be declared by candidates whether they are actually a member of the party or not. This will lead to confusion and misleading campaigns.
The other half of this initiative is Ranked-Choice Voting System. The proponents argue that this simplifies the run off process. I’ve been trying to find the last time we had a run-off election and from what I understand, unless there is a requirement of 50% plus one of the votes to win, the person with the most votes wins the election with no run off. With the increase of parties playing in the political game, it naturally becomes harder to reach the threshold of 50% +1. The way Ranked-Choice Voting works, in a simplified way, is:
ROUND ONE
Candidate 1 - 45 votes
Candidate 2 - 51 votes
Candidate 3 - 57 votes
Candidate 4 - 35 votes (last place therefore eliminated)
Candidate 4’s votes are distributed amongst the other three based on the second rank vote of those who voted for candidate 4 in the first round.
ROUND TWO
Candidate 1 - 62 votes
Candidate 2 - 61 votes (last place therefore eliminated)
Candidate 3 - 64 votes
Candidate 2 was in second place after round one, however now loses to candidate 1 because of the second choice votes of candidate 4 in the first round. Candidate 2’s votes are distributed amongst the other two based on the third rank vote of those who voted for candidate 2 in the first round.
ROUND THREE
Candidate 1 - 97 votes (winner)
Candidate 3 - 90 votes
Candidate 1, who was in third place in the first round, wins the race because of how the third rank votes are distributed. There was no way for voters to compare and vote based on that comparison in rounds two and three.
This result of this initiative will fundamentally change the way elections are held. This discussion hasn’t even brought in the possibility of fraud, miscounting, misunderstanding, confusion and many other outcomes that have been seen in other States that have adopted these processes into the election system.
Utah recently moved legislation forward leading in the direction of removing their version of Rank-Choice voting for various reasons, confusion amongst voters being one of them. A lawsuit is underway in Alaska to try and get rid of Rank-Choice voting because of how much trouble it has caused in recent elections. Delayed results, hidden and fraudulent results and many other things are being connected to Rank-Choice Voting across the country.
I am opposed to Proposition One because of the way it dramatically and fundamentally changes our election system, as well as the tactics of the organization promoting it by deceptively glossing over and oversimplifying what they are actually doing with slight of hand that distracts from the foundational changes that will be made to our system.
As I find more information, I will continue to post it here on this website. You can also donate to the precinct information fund by clicking on the button below (coming soon).
UPDATES
At the State Republican Convention in June of 2024, this issue was discussed and the Party came out against it. On September 12, 2024 the Bonneville Republican Party Central Committee voted as a committee to come out against this proposition, though it was not unanimous.