Closed Primary's... why the issue?

The Republican party voting this weekend to close their Primary is not a new surprise to many of us. My legislation this past session was to avert this vote in the party and to allow for either party to set the rules for running their spring primary. It's unfortunate that we were not able to pass this legislation due to folks believing it was "the Republican's trying to pull something".



As a matter of fact, we were trying to change the Idaho code to ensure that the state's election process for ALL parties was designed to provide for the most effective use of our states dollars used to run these primary elections.



Any party is now allowed to set it's own rules for running their primary elections as decided by the US Supreme Court in 2000 in a case brought by the Democrats against the state of California.



Stratigic cross over voting impacts the results of a primary election, although the Executive Director of the Idaho Democratic Party touts "this is nothing but urban legend" is either not being honest or is really uninformed about his own party's primary elections. It has so much of an impact that the National Democratic Party will not have a 2008 Presidential Primary in the State of Idaho becuase we don't have controls regarding stratigic cross over voting. They have not had a Presidential Primary for years in this state. Saying that he is "not aware it happens in Idaho" is just a faultshood or he is not aware of what his own party is up to.



Is stratigic cross over voting happening in Idaho? It is alive and well, I have received letters and have the following links as proof....

"Tuesday, I voted the straight Republican ticket
Jim Fisher, Lewiston Morning Tribune
1994-05-29
Page: 3F

As an Eagle Scout, I did my good deed last week by helping the Grand Old Party of Idaho select its general election candidates.

No need to thank me, you Republicans. It was nothing really. The Democrats didn't offer me much reason to go to the polls.

Besides, I have a lot of practice at this. I'm a native Washingtonian.

Washington readers may or may not know that they and Alaskans share the distinction of conducting the nation's only blanket primary elections. Under a blanket primary system, voters may cross from party to party on the same ballot to help choose nominees, and
as long as they don't vote in more than one party for any one race, their ballots are perfectly acceptable.

Idaho, like several other states, has what's called an open primary. That means you must choose which party's primary you are going to vote in, and stick with it throughout the ballot. If you cast one vote in any other party, your ballot is thrown out.

Even though it is more restrictive than Washington's system, an open primary still offers the ability to pick and choose depending on the election. If the Democrats offer the more interesting choices this year, you can vote in the Democratic primary. And if the Republicans offer the better array two years down the road, you can move over to their column.

Closed primary states do their best to prevent this. In those states, you must be a registered member of a particular party to vote in its primary.

Closed primary proponents, otherwise known as party regulars, say that system is best because it keeps members of other parties from crossing over and sabotaging their ticket. And I know what they mean by that. Time was when I was more mischievous than I am now.

I was a Washingtonian at that time, and that state's ballot gave me full opportunity to help one party pick its strongest candidate when it needed my vote and to help the other party pick its weakest when I thought my vote would do some, er, bad.

And I could do both on the same ballot. If, say, I wanted to re-elect the incumbent Republican governor, as I invariably did when Dan Evans was governor, I could skip his primary, which he was assured of winning, and vote for the Democrat it would be easiest for Evans to beat. At other times, I would be rooting for a Democrat with a safe or no primary race, and would vote for the goofiest candidate on the GOP ballot.

The trouble with voting that way, aside from the fact that it drives party regulars up the wall, is that sometimes goofs get elected. That's possible in every state, even Washington, but it's even more likely in Idaho. So as an Idahoan, I consider it my duty to help whichever party whose primary I participate in choose its best horses.

I'll give you an example. If I were Larry EchoHawk, the Democratic nominee for this year's race for governor, I would rather go up against Republican Larry Eastland than Republican Phil Batt. Eastland takes more extreme positions and is easier to paint as a reckless character than Batt, who is more moderate in his approaches to issues and in his temperament.

But I'm not EchoHawk. I'm an ordinary Idahoan who will have to live with whichever candidate gets elected. And I would rather live with a Gov. Batt than a Gov. Eastland. So I cast my vote for Batt on Tuesday.

I followed that same impulse down the ballot: in the races for Larry LaRocco's 1st District House seat, for state school superintendent, for state auditor, for lieutenant governor and for a few local offices.

The Democrats didn't offer me anywhere near that many choices. There was the lopsided contest between EchoHawk and Ron Beitelspacher, and what I trusted (mistakenly) would be an equally lopsided race among incumbent Latah County Commissioner Dana Magnuson and two opponents, but that was about it.

So last week at least, I was a Republican. And a sincere one to boot. Come November, I might vote for some or none of the candidates I supported Tuesday. But that's my business. It is, as they say, a free country."

Other examples:

Cross over letter 1 from Bingham county

Cross over letter 2 from Bingham county

Boise Weekly Recommending Cross over voting from Boise

This is not about one party trying to "get one up" on the other party, it's about closing loop holes in our state's primary election process to allow the parties to run their primary in the way that they believe will provide them with the best representative candidates of their party for the fall election. It doesn't matter what party... it does matter that it's not diluted by people that don't have that party's best interest at heart when they cast their ballots.

Cheers,

Marv