Election Day is fast approaching. Are you new to the area or have you recently moved within the county? Make sure you are registered to vote with your current address. If you are not registered, it’s not too late. You can register in person at the County Court Offices at 10 Court Street in Malad or by mailing the completed registration form to the same address. For another option, you can go online at “VOTEIDAHO.gov” to register to vote, update your personal information, confirm that you are registered, find your polling place, and see the sample ballot for your precinct. Per the Oneida County Clerk, “You can also register to vote on Election Day at your polling place.”

You may have noticed signs around the county with Vote “No” on Prop 1. This proposition is on the November ballot and is something we, as conservative republicans, need to stop. The Oneida County Republican Central Committee, as well as the Executive Board of the Idaho Republican Party, oppose Prop 1. This ballot measure would create open or jungled primaries and enact Ranked Choice Voting. Both of these issues in Prop 1 are not good for Idaho. 

 Reclaim Idaho and its allies are pushing for Proposition 1 and have been spreading misinformation. In recent mailers and text messages, they claimed that Prop 1 will “restore Idaho’s voting traditions” — an outrageous lie. Prop 1 does not restore anything; rather, it creates a brand-new system with a Top Four Jungle Primary along with Ranked
Choice Voting.

They claim that hundreds of thousands of unaffiliated voters in Idaho are barred from participating in our elections. This is also a blatant untruth. Every registered voter in Idaho has the right to cast a ballot, both in the primary election in May and the general election in November. While the other parties have decided to leave their primaries open — For example, anyone can request a Democratic ballot — the Idaho GOP decided long ago that people who vote in our primaries should be Republicans.

Currently, there are 1,020,552 registered voters in the state of Idaho. Of these, 606,822 have chosen to affiliate with the Republican Party, meaning they have the right to vote in the Republican primary. The Primary gives voters in each party a chance to select their nominees for the general election.

Saying that members of other parties should have a say in the Republican primary is like saying the Washington State Cougars should be allowed to pick Boise State’s opening playbook. It makes no sense!

The 268,795 registered voters who have chosen to remain unaffiliated aren’t being denied anything by not voting in the Republican primary. They can choose to vote on another party’s primary ballot or vote for nonpartisan races such as school boards. If an unaffiliated voter wants to make a choice in the Republican primary, he or she has that opportunity — all it takes is checking a box marked “Republican” on their registration. You can do this right at the polling place! 

In 2022 Alaska used RCV in their elections and ended up electing a democrat to serve in the US House for the first time in 40 years. Even though the Republican candidates received over 60% of the total votes, a democrat was elected due to the complex rules of RCV. Over 15,000 votes were thrown out in the RCV tabulation. Alaska now has a measure on the 2024 ballot to
repeal RCV. 

Ranked Choice Voting is confusing and costly. Phil McGrane, Idaho Secretary of State, has stated publicly that the costs to implement this new voting system could cost upwards of $40,000,000.

Please join me in voting “NO” on Prop 1 to protect “One Person, One Vote” System.

Thanks,

Bryan Kerr 

Oneida County Republican Central Committee Chairman

*Some of the content for this article was taken from the ‘Vote Idaho Voter Pamphlet’ and articles on the IDGOP.org website with permission from Dorothy Moon, IDGOP
Chairwoman.