Proposition 1 will appear on the November ballot in Idaho.
The Twin Falls Republican party has voted unanimously to oppose this measure and urges all voters to vote NO.
Bring your friends, family and coworkers to the polls to help stop Prop 1.
FAQ
What is being proposed by Proposition 1?
A radical rewriting of Idaho’s election rules which would replace the current system with a top-four jungle primary for the primary election and ranked choice voting (RCV) for the general election.
Does the current system disenfranchise unaffiliated voters?
No, unaffiliated/independent voters are currently allowed to request a ballot for the party of their choice in a primary election. This is why election workers ask which kind of ballot you want after showing them your ID at the polling location.
During a general election, any voter may currently vote for any one candidate on the ballot.
Would this give Idaho voters open primaries like we used to have up until 2012?
No, it will give us a top-four blanket/jungle primary.
What is a top-four “blanket” or “jungle” primary?
In a top-four jungle primary, all voters select one candidate from a large list of candidates and the top four vote getters advance to the general election. This differs from our current primary system where only the top vote getter of each party, as well as all independent candidates, advance to the general election.
Proposition 1 could disenfranchise voters from choosing a candidate from the party of their choice in the general election, because the top four vote getters might all be from the same party. For example, if the top four vote getters in the primary were all Democrats, then Republican voters would have no Republican candidate to vote for in the general election.
Would Proposition 1 change the general election rules?
Yes, Proposition 1 would drastically alter the voting rules in the general election too. It would change from the current system of one person one vote, to a new system called ranked choice voting.
The only offices exempt from this change would be President and Central Committee Precinct Person.
What is ranked choice voting?
RCV is a very complex scheme in which voters rank the candidates in order of preference from first to fourth.
Multiple rounds of instant runoff voting are computed on election night to determine a winner.
As shown in the video below, different voters can get different numbers of votes counted, depending on how they vote.
It can also lead to a situation where the candidate who wins is not the one who got the most number of votes.
What will implementing Proposition 1 cost?
The Idaho Secretary of State has stated that new vote counting software will need to be purchased to implement RCV at a cost of $40,000,000.
The available vendors for such software are Dominion Voting Systems and Clear Ballot.
Can a ranked choice election be hand audited?
No, votes cannot be recounted by hand. They can only be tabulated by a machine due to the complexity of the process.