House Speaker Lawerence Denney is presenting the primary election bill, SB 1198, to the House State Affairs Committee this morning. Committee members have lots of questions. Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise, asked, "As I read that, that's a default to a closed primary and the chairman of the party has to affirmatively notify that that'll be an open primary, is that correct?" Denney responded, "That is correct. It was set up that way to comply with the judge's ruling that it be closed unless the party choose to open it."

Rep. Elfreda Higgins, D-Garden City, asked about the costs identified in the bill - $215,000 to the state general fund and an additional $160,000 to the counties. "It would probably be less after the first one," Denney said. "The first one is for voter education and additional poll workers. Once everyone goes through the system and is registered, then they expect that to decrease. But that would be for the first one, and probably for the first couple."

Rep. Erik Simpson, R-Idaho Falls, asked, "I'm not sure this would eliminate crossover voting, but would it curtail it somewhat?" Denney responded, "It depends on whether the party chooses to close, totally close the primary. And even if they do choose to totally close, you could go through the process where you register as a partisan, and then change your party affiliation back to unaffiliated and vote in the other primary the next time, but that would be a very cumbersome process."