Learn the facts on ranked choice voting

Considerable dialogue and misinformation abound on the Citizen’s Initiative named Top Four Primary and Ranked Choice Voting. A citizen’s vote of yes or no will appear on the Nov. 5 election ballot.

Read the initiative for yourself. Learn the facts. Hear and read from both the proponents and the opposers. A pros and cons document will soon be released from the Secretary of State’s office.   

The full initiative can be found on the Secretary of State’s site at https://sos.idaho.gov/elections/initiatives/2024/Idaho_Open_Primaries_Act.pdf.

Jen Cox’s recent letter is an example of some of the misinformation circulating. In her letter, she cites an example of rank choice voting where “if 100 people vote in an election, and 99 rank Jane Doe as their first choice, and 100 rank John Smith as their fourth choice, then John Smith is elected.” This is incorrect. Voters’ first choice was Jane Doe who won 99% of the first-choice votes. The election is over as Jane received more than 50% of the first-choice votes. 

In addition to false statements such as Ms. Cox, the two recent county fairs had multiple booths passing out fear-inducing flyers containing subjective anecdotal statements. Quotes such as Prop 1 is bad for Idaho, Prop 1 is confusing and complex, Prop 1 is an attempt to create chaos at the ballot box, Prop 1 is the Left’s scheme to undermine our elections by throwing away the mismarked or incorrectly marked ballots.   

Educate yourself with the facts. Pause when you hear a pro or a con that is anecdotal, subjective and someone else’s opinion. Vote with facts and your own opinion. 

BEV KEE 

Sagle