The Senate has just suspended its rules and taken up SB 1198, the primary election bill. It just came out of committee this morning on a party-line vote; the bill would give Idaho its first-ever voter registration by party, and would allow parties to prevent people not registered as members of their party from voting in their primary elections. Senate President Pro-Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, the bill's Senate sponsor, said a federal court overturned Idaho's current law as it relates to the Idaho Republican Party primary because it allowed non-party members to cross over and vote in the GOP primary over the party's objections and counter to its rules. "We can't walk away from it - we can't ignore this," Hill said.

Meanwhile, the House passed its last bill after having it read in full; now it's moved on to HB 183a, a measure on mobile home landlord-tenant laws that already passed the House once, but then was amended in the Senate and now is up for final passage as amended. Again, Democrats refused to waive the required full reading, and the 15-page bill, as amended, now is being read in full.

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