State voter guide arguments prompt complaints, but won’t be changed

The Twin Falls Times-News reports today on a tiff over comments in the statements for and against the school reform referenda - Propositions 1, 2 and 3 on the November ballot - in a state-funded voter guide that goes out statewide. Despite concerns raised by both sides and requests to make changes, the arguments are running as submitted - because the Secretary of State has no legal authority to alter them after the deadline for submitting them. Times-News reporter Melissa Davlin reports that there has been one exception: In 1994, an argument submitted for the voter guide regarding an anti-gay rights initiative included a claim that an Idaho deputy attorney general was a homosexual. The Secretary of State’s office removed the man’s name after he threatened to sue for libel. You can read Davlin’s full report here .