Head Democrat: GOP Closed Primary Threatens Voters’ Freedom and Privacy

Wednesday, June 13, 2007
(New West)By Clint Stennett
Idaho Democratic Senate Leader

As an Idaho voter, you need to know that there’s a battle going on right now inside the GOP that would take away your right to privacy. It’s happening right here in Idaho and it effects one of the most sacred places of government – the voting booth – where you make your choices behind a curtain of secrecy.

There’s a reason the secret ballot is treated with such care and reverence when you appear at your election poll. Our founding fathers had the wisdom to realize that only a secret ballot would render a true picture of the public will. If individuals had to show their marked ballot to the public, powerful politicians might use retribution or intimidation to change the outcome.
It’s hard to believe, but that’s exactly the kind of thing that’s happening in Idaho today as the right wing of the Republican Party seeks to close its primary elections by requiring party registration.

Here’s the background: Idaho currently has open primary elections. Any eligible person can vote in any primary, no matter which party they claim as their own. In fact, more than 30 percent of Idahoans say they are independent of ANY political party, according to Boise State University ’s most recent Public Policy Survey.

The new Republican proposal that’s being considered would prevent anyone who isn’t a registered member of the Republican Party from voting in the Republican primary election.
The most glaring problem with this idea is that it would make your party affiliation instantly available to anyone—your employer, your teachers, the police—even your church clergy would be able to “check up” on your voting habits.

If that’s the case, how many voters will feel forced to join a political party purely out of peer pressure?  How many party activists will be forced to become “independents” – or unaffiliated – because they believe their political choice will not be popular with people who have influence over them?

This is why Idahoans so fiercely value their independence; and while other states might allow for closed primary elections, it’s a bad idea in Idaho.

There’s also the very real problem that would occur when a minority of voters is allowed to select representation for a majority of voters, based solely on political affiliation.

How could that happen? Consider this:  Say you live in a legislative district where three Republicans are competing against each other for the same senate seat. One candidate, a moderate, has held the office for many years. She is being challenged by a ultra-conservative Republican and a liberal Republican. There are no other challengers in the race.

Under this scenario – one which is not uncommon in Idaho—the winner of the Republican primary election in May will effectively have won the general election in November.

Yet according to the proposed change, only registered Republicans would be allowed to vote in the May election. Democrats, Libertarians, Green Party, independents—all will be locked out. As a result, it’s quite possible that a minority of voters will be allowed to choose the legislative senate representation for the entire district. That’s just wrong.

The right wing of the Republican Party is pushing this issue forward, probably into the courts, in an attempt to take away your electoral privacy and perhaps render your ballot useless (unless you pass their party “purity” test).

At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself one question – Just what “problem” do you think they are they trying to fix? Yours, or theirs?

Clint Stennett of Ketchum is Senate Democratic Leader in the Idaho State Legislature.