BOISE — A northern Idaho senator is looking again to change Idaho’s initiative process after the state Supreme Court overturned a similar effort in 2021.
Sen. Doug Okuniewicz, R-Hayden, on Wednesday introduced a joint resolution to the Senate State Affairs Committee that would put on the ballot whether 6% of voters in all of the state’s legislative districts need to sign an initiative for it to be put on the ballot. Currently, the law requires 6% of registered voters in 18 of 35 total districts.
If the resolution is passed, the question on the November 2024 ballot would amend the state’s Constitution to add the requirement.
In 2021, the Legislature passed a law that would have made this change, but the Supreme Court unanimously overturned it. The court wrote in its opinion that “the Legislature has acted beyond its constitutional authority and violated the people’s fundamental right to legislate directly.”
Okuniewicz said if the change is put to voters instead of made by the Legislature, that it should “inoculate it from any legal trouble.”
“They felt the Legislature was not in a position to impose that change on the people,” he told the committee. “So it puts the question to the people, and allows them to make the decision.”
The proposal’s statement of purpose says it will “eliminate the current practice of ‘venue shopping’ by well-funded activist organizations.”
The 2021 law the Legislature passed was challenged in court by the group Reclaim Idaho, which successfully put forward the Medicaid expansion initiative. The group also garnered the needed signatures in 2022 for an initiative to increase education funding, but later pulled it from the ballot.
The committee voted unanimously to introduce the joint resolution, but Senate Minority Leader Melissa Wintrow, D-Boise, said she will have questions when it comes up for a hearing.
If the committee passes the resolution, it will need to pass by a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate before it is placed on the 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.
