Posts published in “Day: November 1, 2023”

If Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane were to explain ranked-choice voting in an elevator conversation, “I would need a tall building,” he said.

Or, maybe a trip to the moon would be more suitable.

McGrane, in his role as secretary, has not taken a stand on the open-primaries initiative (which includes ranked-choice voting) that is being pushed by Reclaim Idaho. But he’s making himself more familiar with the process, and it will be up to him to figure out the mechanics if an initiative is approved by voters.

There’s no question that the new voting system would make elections, and tabulating the results, more challenging.

Here’s how Reclaim Idaho explains it: “To make sure the winner enjoys support from a broad coalition of voters and not just a narrow faction, there will be Instant Runoff Voting in the general election (also called ranked-choice voting). Here’s how it works: The last-place candidate will be eliminated and each vote for that candidate will be transferred to the voter’s second choice. This process repeats until only two candidates remain and the candidate with the most votes is declared the winner.”

Got it? Under ranked-choice voting, a candidate that gets the most first-place votes may not necessarily win the election. A candidate would need to get more than 50 percent of the vote to secure a victory.

The first part of the proposed voter initiative – open primaries – is easier to digest. Voters can choose from a list of candidates, regardless of political affiliation, and the top four vote-getters advance to the general election ballot. So, the general election for a given office could have (for instance) three Republicans and a Democrat.

One prevailing question is whether ranked choice would be workable for Idaho.

“My observation is that people are focused on what they think it (ranked-choice voting) solves, so it’s more of a policy debate. There’s also a functional piece involved,” he said.

The best role model is Alaska. McGrane will be talking with Alaska officials to see how the system works.Most of McGrane’s questions are on the administrative end.

“Our current voting system cannot tabulate ranked-choice voting, so would require significant changes to our voting system,” McGrane said. “Another thing is, right now we have a county-based system where they feed results to the state. To do the ranking system, the ballots would need to come centrally from the same place, and that’s something our state has never done.”

So, there could be some added cost. At this point, McGrane is not sure how much.

With ranked-choice, there seems to be an assumption that voters will study all races closely and will use some intelligence in ranking the selections. In reality, not all races are created equally in terms of public exposure.

“In a presidential race, or a governor’s race, that’s not such a problem,” McGrane said. For something such as Ada County clerk, which McGrane was before becoming secretary of state, ranking the choices could become more of a dart-throw.

Opinions are mixed about the proposed initiative. Proponents include former Gov. Butch Otter and First Lady Lori Otter, who especially favor the open-primary aspect. In a story by Clark Corbin of the Capital Sun, Lori Otter said closed primaries have made the Republican Party extreme. “If you don’t pay attention to what’s happening,” she warns, “this party is going to lose its power of everything that the Republican Party stands for.”

Former Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice Jim Jones has written that ranked-choice voting may be the only salvation from “extreme” politics ruling the state.

Idaho’s Republican Party Chairwoman Dorothy Moon soundly rejects the proposed initiative, while blasting some of the voices from the past. “Make no mistake, this initiative is a pernicious plot to take away your ability to vote for conservative lawmakers,” she wrote. Brent Regan, the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee chairman, also opposes the initiative.

So, here’s a quick voter’s guide:

If you dislike Moon, Regan and those from the far right, then you might think that the voter initiative is the greatest idea since blue turf on a football field. If you are not a fan of the likes of Otter and Jones, then you can equate this initiative with poison ivy – something you don’t want to touch.

Chuck Malloy is a long-time Idaho journalist and columnist. He may be reached at ctmalloy@outlook.com