Organizers in Idaho are collecting enough signatures for an initiative for open primaries. What happens next?

Volunteers from Idahoans for Open Primaries begin chanting “Let’s vote” after dropping off the final box of signatures at the Idaho Secretary of State’s office in the Capitol on Tuesday. They said they had collected 97,000 signatures for an initiative to institute open primaries. | Darin Oswald, Idaho Statesman

BOISE (Idaho Statesman) — In dozens of boxes, organizers of Idahoans for Open Primaries submitted nearly 75,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office Tuesday, overcoming the considerable hurdle of collecting verified signatures from across the state.

It was the final step in a months-long process in which voters were asked whether Idaho should end its closed primary system and adopt ranked-choice voting.

The measure would ban closed primaries and instead establish a primary system open to all voters that sends the four candidates with the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, to the November ballot. In Idaho, only registered Republicans can vote in the Republican primary in May, which often determines the winner in a red state where two-thirds of voters are registered Republicans.

The initiative would also introduce ranked-choice voting in the general election, allowing voters to rank their preferred candidates. Candidates with negligible support for their first choice would be eliminated and their supporters’ votes would roll over to their second choice until two candidates remain. After that, the candidate with the most votes would win.

One of the initiative’s lead organizers, Luke Mayville, said the coalition plans to hold town hall meetings, knock on doors and talk to voters to explain the initiative before the November election.

“We have found that voters immediately welcome this initiative when they hear about it, because most voters believe that you should not be forced to join a political party just to exercise your right to vote,” he told the Idaho Statesman by phone.

Idaho’s Secretary of State checks signatures

Idaho law requires sponsoring a voter initiative to collect signatures from six percent of Idaho’s registered voters in the last election, as well as six percent of registered voters in at least 18 of the state’s 35 voting districts.

The coalition submitted more than 97,000 signatures to county clerks across the state in May. Clerks verified nearly 80 percent of those signatures, which exceeded the number of signatures needed to meet the minimum threshold, one of the lead organizers, Luke Mayville, told the Idaho Statesman by phone.

Mayville expects the Secretary of State’s review to take one to two weeks. If the signatures are approved, the petition would go to a majority vote on the measure in November. The Secretary of State’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

PROMINENT REPUBLICANS FIGHT INITIATIVE

The coalition’s effort has prominent opponents, including the state Republican Party, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador and other Republican politicians. Dorothy Moon, the chair of the state Republican Party, has claimed the initiative would “mess up the electoral process” and called the initiative “insidious.”

“This initiative is a malicious plot to deprive you of the opportunity to elect conservative MPs,” Moon said.

Mayville told the Statesman that election organizers had spoken to them and were clear that the measure was aimed at “giving every voter in Idaho the right to participate in our most important elections.”

“There are influential party insiders and interest groups in our state who oppose this initiative because they know it will give ordinary voters the power to choose their own politicians,” Mayville said. “These interest groups want to choose our politicians themselves and they know that the closed primary system allows them to do that.”