Closed primaries plan dies in committee

BOISE – Lawmakers narrowly rejected an attempt Monday to require Idaho voters to officially choose a political party in order to cast ballots in the state’s primary elections.

Rep. Marv Hagedorn, R-Meridian, proposed a bill to close the state’s primaries – a position favored by the state Republican Party platform to keep Democrats from voting in GOP party elections.

Hagedorn said Idaho’s primary election participation has dropped dramatically since the state switched to open primaries in 1972. But several legislators said the bill would disenfranchise Idaho’s traditionally independent voters.

Idaho law allows voters to choose on Election Day which party’s primary ballot to vote on. The bill would prohibit independent voters from participating in party elections, restricting them to nonpartisan contests.

The Idaho Republican Party endorsed closed primaries at its convention last summer after a six-way Republican primary in the 1st Congressional District prompted concerns about Democrats casting ballots in that race. Open primaries theoretically allow members of one party to vote for moderate or weaker candidates from the opposing party, setting them up to fail in the general election.

Since 1910, Idaho has tried at least seven primary schemes, all of which proved problematic.

An average of 32 percent of registered voters have turned out for primaries since 1976, compared with 68 percent who voted in the generals.

Only about 26 percent of voters participated in the 2006 primary, while 60 percent cast ballots in the general election.

Rep. Anne Pasley-Stuart, D-Boise, said Boise State University’s annual Public Policy Survey has shown many Idahoans consider themselves independent voters.

“It concerns me that this could be a barrier to them and discourage them from voting in the primary elections,” she said.

The 2007 survey of 513 residents found that 44 percent said they’re Republican, 18 percent are Democrat and 32 percent are independent.

The 18th annual public policy survey, conducted in late December and early January, had an margin of error of 4 percentage points and a 95 percent confidence level.

Hagedorn said voters could still change their party affiliation on Election Day.

Idaho’s system also puts the state in legal jeopardy because of two court cases, he said. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled California’s system of “blanket” primaries unconstitutional in 2000, deciding that it violated a political party’s First Amendment right of association. California’s current system allows voters who “decline to state” affiliation to vote in a party’s primary if the party allows it.

Washington changed its traditional blanket primary system in 2004 following legal challenges, eventually settling on a Montana-style “pick-a-party” system that requires voters to temporarily and confidentially affiliate with a party for each election.

Oregon and Nevada have closed primaries.

The majority of states have a basic closed system like the one proposed Monday, Hagedorn said.

Rep. Clete Edmunson, R-Council, opposed the bill, saying, “There’s an independent streak in Idaho a mile wide.”

Requiring people to choose a party encourages participation, Hagedorn said. Otherwise, the state is “incentivizing apathy.”

“This is not a dead issue,” he said, adding that in the last primary there were “some issues that could have been avoided.”

Members of the House State Affairs Committee voted 9-8 against introducing the bill.