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.

Will closed primaries hurt voters?

Excerpts from CDA Press: 

By TOM GREENE
Staff writer - Coeur d’Alene Press 

Otter, Newcomb say move would disenfranchise independent voters

COEUR d’ALENE — A courtroom showdown is brewing between the GOP and the state over whether primary elections should be closed or open.

“We now have a party rule that is in conflict with state statute,” said Rod Beck, a former state Republican senator from Boise. “The only way to resolve that conflict is to have a court declare that statute unconstitutional.”

The Idaho Republican Party Central Committee voted 88-58 in favor of closing party primaries earlier this month.

Critics — including many Democrats and Republicans from former Speaker of the House Bruce Newcomb to the GOP chairman to Gov. Butch Otter — say closing primaries will disenfranchise independent voters who will no longer be able to vote in primaries.

Supporters say it’s a no-brainer: A party has the constitutional right to chose its own candidate.

The law is seemingly on the side of Republicans who want to close the primaries.

In an opinion rendered by Attorney General Lawrence Wasden in March

at the request of House Majority Leader Mike Moyle, Wasden wrote:

“If one or more of Idaho’s qualified political parties adopts rules requiring voters to register as party members before voting in the party’s primary election, an Idaho court is likely to uphold the party’s right to do so and to declare Idaho’s open primary election system an unconstitutional infringement upon the party and its members’ First Amendment right to freely associate.”

For the law to change, the opinion states, “the Idaho state Legislature would have to amend it, or the aggrieved party or members of the political party would have to sue the state to effect change.”

There is currently no voter registration in Idaho, but a survey released earlier this year by Boise State said 32 percent of Idahoans consider themselves independent, 44 percent Republican and 18 percent Democrat.

Bev Moss, chair of the Kootenai County Democrats, said she understands the fear that there could be cross-over voting in primaries, but that has rarely, if ever occurred and “if we go to this it totally disenfranchises 30 percent of the voters, at least.”

“They don’t want to be put in a box. They want to be independent,” Moss said. “In order to do this, they will have to declare a party and I think instead of doing that they just won’t vote.”

With an overwhelming majority of Republicans holding offices in the state, Moss said, “What problem are they trying to fix?”

Ruthie Johnson, GOP state committee woman for Kootenai County, said voters will still able to vote for whoever they want in the general election, but in the primaries “Republicans ought to vote for Republicans and Democrats should vote for Democrats.”

“Because if anybody can go and pick up any ballot they want, then the Democrats can pick the Republicans’ candidate for them,” Johnson said.  [More...]

In Wasden’s opinion, he wrote that the administrative burden was not a justified reason to not open primaries and had been shot down in other courts.

Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said a lawsuit is “probably inevitable.”

“It’s a matter of when,” said Ysursa, who would register as a Republican If Idaho made party registration mandatory. “It’s going to be a difficult task to defend our law against this rule.” [More...]

Party Registration is a grassroots effort

From Balzer’s blog titled “Journal Politics”

Posted by Mark Balzer on June 13, 2007, 8:55 am
in General ( Journal Politics)

By Mark Balzer

Senator Stennett’s recent post about the closed primary election has once again demonstrated the lack of understanding some people have about political the political process. Some of what Mr. Stennett has said is true; most of it is red herring and non sequitur argument only made to confuse the reader.

By Mark Balzer

Senator Stennett’s recent post about the closed primary election has once again demonstrated the lack of understanding some people have about political the political process. Some of what Mr. Stennett has said is true; most of it is red herring and non sequitur argument only made to confuse the reader.

The Grass Roots of the Republican Party of Idaho has indeed voted to close the primary process. It is true that this would require you to register to vote as a Republican if you desired to vote in the primary elections in May. That is the extent of the truth in Mr. Stennett’s column.

The primary election is a selection process for the party to decide who will represent it on the general ballot in November. Federal courts have ruled in the past that this process belongs to the party, not to the general population. The candidate selected in the primary process is then placed on the November ballot for consideration by anyone of any party who wants to vote for them.

Mr. Stennett’s position on a minority of voters electing the representative of a certain district only supports the argument made by the grass roots of the Republican Party. In districts where the Republican primary is the only primary then it is true the November election would be over in May.

However Mr. Stennett’s contention that this would prevent democrats, Green Party and independents from having a choice in the primary is false in its basic premise. Nothing in the proposed closed primary prevents any other party from fielding a candidate. If these parties feel that their position one that needs to be heard then they should field candidates and give the people of Idaho a choice.

If the people of Idaho are as fiercely independent and Mr. Stennett and I believe (the one issue that I believe we can find agreement on) then these other parties should be able to make a case. The very fact that this is even an issue is proof that even Republicans in Idaho do not march lock step together.

What it does prevent is a person who does not share Republican ideals from electing someone who also does not share Republican ideals and who only placed and R behind their name on the ballot as a matter of expediency.

Contrary to the arguments made against the closed primary, this should invigorate the political process not provide a hindrance. Those voters who wish to remain independent can do so and “Vote for the man” during the November election after all political parties involved have made their choice about who to place on the general ballot for the people to choose from.

I have lived and worked in states with a closed primary system, in fact Idaho is the first state I have lived in with an open primary. I have seen no instance where any retribution was taken against anyone for their political beliefs. There has been good natured ribbing on all sides and vigorous discussion but no retribution for jobs or business opportunities.

If any church would make party affiliation a requirement of membership then their tax free status should be revoked. I have met stiff resistance to my ideas in class at ISU from professors. However, my grades have never suffered because of my political views.

I have written a column every week for the paper, with my picture attached to the column, and identified myself and a member of the Republican Party in this state. In a county that is controlled by the democrat party. Yet no one has refused to serve me in restaurants no one has not sold me gas, or in any way discriminated against me.

The only time I had any trouble like that was in Oneida County when I had a confrontation with the local education association. That situation had nothing to do with politics though.

Now if my expressing my political views has never been the cause of any action against me why would someone take the time to call the Secretary of State and check on my political affiliation just to take some type of financial action against me, or anyone for that matter?

In fact the only situation recently that I can find where anything like this has happened is in Broward County Florida. Radio station WIDO 610 AM has had a contract with Broward County to air hurricane information for years. Now the county commissioners, democrats all, are not going to renew the stations contract because the station airs Rush Limbaugh’s program.

The DEMOCRATS are placing their politics above emergency management and the safety of the citizens of Broward County. I am sure that Mr. Stennett and others of his ilk would tell you that it is Bush’s fault.

Mark Balzer is the head of the Republican Party in Southeast Idaho.