Idaho rejects Prop 1

Idaho voters roundly rejected Proposition 1 Tuesday night. The ballot initiative would’ve opened Idaho’s primary elections to all voters and implemented ranked choice voting in general elections. 

More than 618,000 voters, close to 70% of the total, voted no on Proposition 1. Only about 30% of voters cast their ballots in favor of the initiative. 

Luke Mayville, spokesperson for Idahoans for Open Primaries, called the results “deeply disappointing” Wednesday. The group had acknowledged defeat late Tuesday. 

The Idaho Republican Party came out in force to oppose the initiative, and many Republican leaders throughout the state celebrated the initiative’s failure. Among them was Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, who twice sued to keep Proposition 1 off the ballot and described the initiative as “going down in flames” Tuesday night. 

The Idaho Freedom Foundation and Idaho Freedom Action President Ronald Nate weighed in on the results Wednesday. 

“The people of Idaho have spoken,” their statement said. “Proposition 1, the attempt by out-of-state leftists to rig out elections, has failed.” 

In his statement, Nate called Idaho legislators to take action on the process that allows Idahoans to initiate legislation themselves, bypassing the Legislature.

“It is high time to reform or eliminate this phony initiative process, which has been manipulated and abused by special interests,” he said. 

More than 75,000 Idahoans signed petitions to get Proposition 1 on the ballot this year.

Partisanship was Proposition 1’s biggest challenge, Mayville said. He noted that the wide margin by which the initiative failed closely aligns with the partisan divide in Idaho, suggesting that voters viewed Proposition 1 through a partisan lens. 

“This was in spite of our best efforts to persuade the public that reforms like open primaries and ranked choice voting are nonpartisan reforms that benefit all voters, regardless of party,” he said. 

Mayville said it’s hard to gauge whether a different reform proposal would’ve fared better with voters this year. 

There are no concrete plans to mount a renewed effort at this time, Mayville said. 

“We can say for certain that we’re not going to stop shining a bright light on the problem of the closed primary, and we’re not going to stop doing whatever we can to make Idaho’s government more accountable to its citizens,” he said.