Labrador challenges Open Primaries initiative

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador is challenging the Open Primaries initiative in court.

The office on Wednesday filed a petition to the state Supreme Court arguing the initiative, which garnered enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot, does not meet the constitutional single-subject requirement.

Labrador also argues the election system proposed in the initiative should not be called “an open primary” and that by marketing it as such, it was misleading to those who signed the petition to get the initiative on the ballot.

“The so-called ‘Open Primary Initiative’ has nothing to do with open primaries, and thousands of Idahoans were misled into signing the petition by signature collectors who misrepresented the initiative,” Labrador said in an emailed statement. “The sponsors also buried ranked-choice voting in the initiative and again misrepresented the initiative to voters. Idaho law does not allow such abuse of the initiative process. It is unacceptable and jeopardizes the integrity of the Court’s prior ruling and the initiative process itself.”

The initiative would create a top-four primary, open to voters of any political party, which would send the top four vote-getters to the general election.

Voters could then choose the winner in a general election with instant runoff voting, also known as ranked choice voting, which allows voters to select a top candidate and rank additional candidates in order of preference.

After the first choices of all ballots are counted, the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated. Votes for the eliminated candidate will be counted toward those voters’ next choice — this process repeats until two candidates remain and the one with the most votes will win.

Luke Mayville, a spokesperson for Idahoans for Open Primaries, previously told the Idaho Press that the group is confident the initiative would withstand a legal challenge.

“The Open Primaries initiative that we’re proposing is very similar to proposals in other states that have been upheld by courts multiple times,” Mayville said at the time.

He also said he wasn’t surprised by the legal challenge by Labrador.

“The attorney general is one of many politicians who has benefited from a broken system, and is trying to keep it,” he said. “Many powerful opponents of this initiative don’t like the idea that ordinary voters would choose their own leaders; they want to handpick our leaders themselves.”

The initiative has faced deep opposition and harsh criticism from many in the Idaho GOP, arguing it’s too complicated and that political parties should be in control of their own primary contests.

Labrador’s filing asks the court to order the secretary of state to reject the initiative and prohibit it from showing up on the November ballot.

Guido covers Idaho politics for the Lewiston Tribune, Moscow-Pullman Daily News and Idaho Press of Nampa. She may be contacted at lguido@idahopress.com and can be found on Twitter @EyeOnBoiseGuido.