On Sunday, February 1, the Idaho Republican Party state committee reaffirmed its commitment to the pending lawsuit in U.S. District Court called Idaho Republican Party v Ysursa. See this news story. The lawsuit asks that the party be allowed to close its primary to people who do not indicate that they are Republicans.
Ballot Access News
Edited By Richard Winger
Here’s my take on this issue.
I could still sign up as a Republican and vote in the primaries and then vote my main choices in November. Unless there are protections, there would be ways around it.
Idaho law permits candidates to change parties 3 months after the general election where they ran as the party’s nominee. Certainly there could be no more restrictive laws with regard to ordinary voters. Idaho only has partisan primaries every other year, so what is the point of requiring permanent party registration, when the voters could change their party before the next election in which it has any effective meaning?
It is just added expense to maintain the records for the benefit of private organizations, and extra hassle for the voters. It in no way improves the opportunity or ability of Idahoans to choose their elected officials.
It would be far simpler to remove the party brands from the public ballots. Citizens would still be able to associate politically. They could run political ads, “Joe Smith is a Republican. He is good. His opponent is a Democrat. He is bad. Vote for Joe Smith.” And even if voters couldn’t remember who is good and who is bad, they could simply take a voter guide with them to the polls.
#2: You would not be helping to choose a party’s nominees in the November general election.
The point is that, with party registration, a voter signs a piece of paper affiliating with a party. I, for example, have voted in many Democratic primaries, but I would never, ever sign anything stating that I am a Democrat.
While registering voters by party is the most practical way of identifying voters’ party preferences, there are other ways of doing so, one of which I note in the piece linked to in my comment #1 above. Here’s another way: assuming that state law does not mandate open primaries, a party could poll all registered voters in the state on their party preferences and use the results of that poll to determine which voters the party wanted to invite to participate in its primaries.
In New Hampshire, registered independents may register with a party at the polling place and then vote in that party’s primary. On leaving the voting booth, such a voter may then switch his registration back to independent status.
Rhode Island has the same setup, except that the voter must wait at least 90 days before again changing his registration.
Iowa has party registration AND open primaries. A registered Democrat may switch his registration to Republican at the polling place and vote in the Republican primary, and vice versa.