Ranked choice voting is bad for everyone

I don’t have strong feelings about open primaries. To me, an open primary is just a general election in May.

However, I strongly advise conservatives to vote against the open primaries initiative. Why, you ask? Because it is bundled with the ranked-choice voting initiative. The Reclaim Idaho communications don’t emphasize this for a reason. If you vote for the open primaries, you are voting for both initiatives and ranked-choice voting is a terrible idea.

Alaska approved rank choice voting two years ago and promptly elected their first Democratic Congressman in 50 years. The three Republicans in the election split the conservative vote, and somehow the Democrat won. It’s such a bad idea, that Alaska is now preparing a ballot initiative to repeal it after just two years.

Democrats in Idaho aren’t winning elections based on their ideas, so they try to change election rules. Ranked choice voting is their attempt to change the rules.

Send Democrats the message that to win elections, they need better and more popular ideas. If they want open primaries, unbundle the initiatives and vote on open primaries as a single issue.

Vote no on the Open Primaries Initiative.

STEVE TEMPLE

Sandpoint