BOISE, Idaho — Attorney General Raúl Labrador filed a petition with the state's Supreme Court on July 24 challenging Idaho's Open Primary Initiative, alleging that it was 'deceptively and inaccurately marketed.'
The initiative would eliminate closed primaries in Idaho and implement a ranked-choice voting system in the general election for the state.
However, after a review of the petition from Labrador by the Idaho State Supreme Court the challenge has been dismissed. The full text of the opinion from the court is available here.
The Idaho State Supreme Court wrote that there were two issues with Labrador's challenge to the initiative:
- The Attorney General has failed to establish that the Secretary of State has a clear legal duty to declare all of the signatures on the Initiative Petition invalid.
- The Attorney General’s challenge to the Initiative on the basis that it violates the single-subject rule is not ripe for review unless and until voters pass it in November.
Attorney General Labrador gave this statement following the dismissal:
“Today the Idaho Supreme Court dismissed our petition on procedural grounds and acknowledged that our allegations about the Open Primaries Initiative are “serious” but must be adjudicated in the district court. We appreciate the Court’s reasoned analysis of the issues at hand. We are now reviewing our options to show that outside interest groups knowingly misled Idaho voters about the petition they were signing and will continue to defend the people's right to an initiative process free of deception. We are disappointed that the court did not take up the single subject issue at this time, but are confident that the people of Idaho and the courts will eventually reject this clearly unconstitutional petition.”
According to the court opinion, if Labrador wants to challenge the signature gathering process for the initiative he will need to start in the district circuit.
