Is primary a stroke of genius or just a stroke?

For the first time in Idaho history, a person must declare a party affiliation to vote in the May 15 primary.

What we can’t figure out is whether this is a stroke of genius by this state’s dominant party or just a symptom of a stroke by a party that is about to implode.

It might be both.

From what we can tell, the goal in closing the Republican primary was to keep Democrats from picking up a GOP primary ballot and voting for weaker candidates. If successfully deployed in the past, this strategy would pit a 98-pound GOP weakling against a strong, sand-kicking Democrat in the general election. Of course, we all know how that race would turn out. Did we mention that the GOP holds every national and statewide office in Idaho as well as a vast majority in the state House and Senate?

If this has been the secret weapon deployed by the Democrats, Idaho Republicans should have probably left it alone … but a certain faction couldn’t help themselves.

Enter a closed primary — where voters must register as a Democrat, Republican, Constitutionalist, Libertarian or unaffiliated. After choosing a party affiliation, a person must choose a GOP, Democratic or nonpartisan ballot. Nobody in their right mind who actually wants to receive a ballot with a contested race will choose anything other than Republican in this election. This has been the case for years.

What is interesting, is that the Democrats here have actually fielded unopposed candidates in each of the races for the first time in recent memory. The strategy being that if a weaker GOP candidate gets through the primary, the Democrats will have a nominee who might win. Stop me if you have heard part of this before.

What has been an unintended consequence of the closed primary is that people who have voted for years are going to stay away from the polls next week. They either don’t want to be known by a party designation or the whole process sounds too complicated to jump into. We think this is an unintended consequence because we can’t believe a political party — or a radical fringe of a political party — would actually want to quell the number of voters in an election. As America spreads democracy around the world, the number of voters who turn out for an election here is at all-time lows.

This closed primary doesn’t allow for judges, political appointees and people who don’t think it is anyone’s business which party you belong, to vote.

By suppressing voters, a fringe group might actually fire up a base of people and get elected. That would last until November when cooler heads — and more voters — would prevail.

We might be missing something in this grand democratic experiment the GOP is fiddling with this year.

Given the GOP’s election track record here, we would hate to second guess the real theory behind the closed primary. On the surface it looks like a grand plan to confuse the electorate. What we fear is what is below the surface.

Please plan to vote May 15.

Look for the sample ballot May 10 and the Daily Bee endorsements this Sunday.

David Keyes is publisher of the Daily Bee.