By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports 

The Idaho Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s appeal of the Idahoans for Open Primaries ballot initiative on procedural grounds.  

“Allegations of fraud in the gathering of signatures in the initiative process are serious,” the opinion states. “Those allegations, however, must be adjudicated in the district court in the first instance.” 

The dismissal means the Idaho Supreme Court will not hear oral arguments on the issue.  

The voter initiative would change Idaho primary elections by placing candidates from all political parties on a single open ballot. Currently, only registered Republicans may vote in the closed Republican primary. The initiative would permit all registered voters to vote for any primary candidate, regardless of political party affiliation. The top four candidates from the primary would advance to the general election. The initiative would also create a new instant runoff voting system in Idaho’s general elections, commonly called ranked choice voting.   

“As for the Attorney General’s assertion that the Initiative violates the Idaho Constitution’s one-subject rule, that issue will not be ripe for review, unless and until, Idaho voters approve the Initiative at the general election in November,” the opinion states. “Nothing in this decision should be interpreted to preclude the Attorney General from filing an action with the district court to adjudicate whether signatures on the petition should be declared null and void due to fraud.” 

Much of Labrador’s argument focused on the slogan of “open primaries” being inaccurate.  

“We are unpersuaded that the statutes at play create a legal duty for the Secretary of State, let alone a clear one,” to declare signatures in support of the initiative invalid, the court wrote.  

“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,” said Dan Estes, Labrador’s spokesman, in a written statement on Tuesday. “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.”