Idaho Dispatch

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District Court Judge Dismisses Labrador’s Lawsuit Against Prop 1

By • September 6, 2024

District Court Judge Patrick Miller has dismissed Attorney General Raul Labrdor’s lawsuit against Prop 1.

The lawsuit alleged that Prop 1 organizers fraudulently gathered signatures and misled the public on what Prop 1 would do. Labrador filed the lawsuit in District Court after the Idaho Supreme Court dismissed it on procedural grounds.

Miller said Labrador did not provide evidence that Prop 1 organizers “Idahoans for Open Primaries” had committed fraud. Miller said the initiative’s short title was in large letters on the bottom of each page where signatures were gathered.

Miller also said Labrador’s argument that using the phrase “open primary” did not describe an open primary was false. Miller said information posted on the Idahoans for Open Primaries website described what the initiative would do.

In a statement posted on his X account, Labrador said,

We are disappointed with the ruling. Idaho law is very lear: no person may make a false statement to obtain signatures for an initiative. My duty is to protect the integrity of the initiative process and to defend the legal rights of all Idaho voters to receive fair and truthful information about initiatives.

The district court’s decision is inconsistent with the two Idaho Supreme Court’s decisions that expressly state the term “open primary means something significantly different than what is proposed by the Initiative” and that “the Initiative does not describe an ‘open primary’ system.” Unfortunately, nothing will stop initiative sponsors from obtaining signatures through misrepresentation in the future.

At least, our legal challenge has raised awareness about the true nature of the initiative. It is now up to Idaho voters to decide whether they want to replace Idaho’s primary system with a top-four primary system and fundamentally alter Idaho’s orderly general elections with an expensive ranked choice voting system that has resulted in confusion, delays and widespread voting errors in other states.”

Idahoans for Open Primaries celebrated the legal victory and posted the following on X:

BREAKING: In another major victory for Proposition 1 (the Open Primaries Initiative), the district court has ruled IN FAVOR of our coalition and AGAINST Attorney General Labrador. The sideshow is over. Proposition 1 will be on the ballot this November.

@YesOn1 #idpol

The election will take place on November 5.

Do you support or oppose Prop 1? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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Tags: Attorney General, Idaho, Idahoans for Open Primaries, Judge Patrick Miller, Prop 1, Ranked Choice Voting, Raul Labrador, RCV, Top Four Primary

4 thoughts on “District Court Judge Dismisses Labrador’s Lawsuit Against Prop 1”

  3. Absolutely DO NOT support Proposition 1. VOTE NO!

    Prop 1 will completely restructure Idaho’s election system in three main ways:

    1. Require all primaries to use a wide-open “top-four” scheme technically termed a “jungle” primary. The current partisan primary would be abolished. Instead, the top four vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party affiliation (or lack thereof). No longer could each party choose the best candidate to represent the interests of their group before heading to the general election.

    2. Implement Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in our general elections. The general election would be conducted via an instant runoff (aka Ranked Choice Voting). Voters would rank candidates by order of preference (forcing them to vote for candidates they absolutely DO NOT want), with votes counted in multiple rounds. If nobody receives an outright majority, the lowest vote-getter is eliminated. This process — which requires computer intervention (what could go wrong?) and eliminates voted ballots — continues until one candidate has a majority. That candidate is then declared the winner. Note that YOUR vote may be thrown out in the process.

    3. Cost Idaho Taxpayers up to $40 million by requiring new voting machines and extensive voter education while putting an undue burden on county elections (especially those that span counties such as state Senators and Representatives).

    Watch this 4-minute video, which shows how the complex RCV process works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K3OWokYapU

    More information: https://eolson47.substack.com/p/jungle-primaries-and-ranked-choice

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