Lawsuit: Ranked-Choice Voting Ballot Measure Violates Idaho Law – The Federalist

A 2024 ballot measure seeking to implement ranked-choice voting (RCV) in Idaho violates state law, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.

Filed by Attorney General Ral Labrador, the legal petition requests the Idaho Supreme Court invalidate a statute proposal set to appear on the Gem States November ballot that would abolish party primaries and institute RCV for general elections. Candidates of all parties would be forced to run in a single primary, in which the top four vote-earners would advance to the RCV-run general election, according to Ballotpedia.

The proposed ballot measure would effectively negate a law passed last year by the Idaho Legislature barring the use of RCV.

Under ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates of all parties in order of preference. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes in the first round of voting, the last-place finisher is eliminated, and his votes are reallocated to the voters second-choice candidate. This process continues until one candidate receives a majority of votes.

Labrador argues that Idahoans for Open Primaries, the ballot measures primary supporter, employed misleading language and practices when gathering signatures for the initiative by referring to the sought-after system as an open primary.

The attorney general claims defendants did this in spite of a ruling on the initiative by the high court last year. In that decision, the courts majority instructed Labrador to rewrite his original title for the initiative and noted, as Labrador also does in the suit, that the measures use of the term open primary fail[s] to accurately describe the primary system proposed by the Initiative.

The coalitions pervasive uses of the slogan open primaries, after this Court ruled it inaccurate, are knowing false statement[s] or representation[s] that violate state statute, the lawsuit reads. All the coalitions signatures were obtained in violation of this statute and are null and void.'

Labrador also accuses Idahoans for Open Primaries of using deceptive marketing and of neglecting to inform voters the proposal would institute RCV for general elections.

[U]nlike the open primaries slogan, ranked-choice voting is nowhere to be seen on the coalitions clipboards, banners, t-shirts, stickers, or website home page, the lawsuit reads. Indeed, it has been relegated to an afterthought in the coalitions promotional efforts.

In the lawsuit, the attorney general clarifies that [r]anked-choice voting receives so little attention in Idahoans for Open Primaries promotional materials because it is highly unpopular and, when tried in other jurisdictions, often quickly repealed.

By adding a ranked-choice voting proposal to a comparatively more popular top-four primary proposal, Idahoans for Open Primaries hopes to secure votes from citizens who dont notice that the initiative has anything to do with ranked-choice voting, or those who support a top four primary strongly enough to vote for the bundled pair, according to the lawsuit.

[READ: Ranked-Choice Voting Is The Monster Under The Bed Of American Elections]

Another issue raised in the suit is Idahos single-subject rule for initiatives, which, according to a prior court ruling, requires a common object, and that all parts of a statute relate to and tend to support and accomplish the indicated object. Labrador argues that the initiatives attempt to institute a top-four primary and RCV-run general election constitutes two distinct objects, and subsequently violates the single-subject provision.

A top four primary has nothing to do with how votes are tabulated in the general election, and its implementation is unrelated to adopting a ranked-choice voting system, the lawsuit reads.

Labrador has requested the Idaho Supreme Court issue a peremptory or alternative writ of prohibition instructing the secretary of state not to include the initiative title and number on the certified ballot distributed to local election officials, or a peremptory or alternative writ of mandate ordering the Secretary of State to declare that all signatures supporting the initiative are invalid and withdraw his filing, acceptance, and certification of the initiative so it does not appear on the final certified ballot.

The attorney general asked the court to expedite its review of the case given its immediate relevance to the November election, according to a local outlet.

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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Lawsuit: Ranked-Choice Voting Ballot Measure Violates Idaho Law - The Federalist