Around 50 volunteers from Idaho Legislative District 1 kicked off the last phase of their grass-roots campaign for Open Primaries Saturday in Sandpoint.
“This local team qualified District 1 in record time,” Idahoans for Open Primaries leader Luke Mayville told the crowd at the Sandpoint Community Center. “This feat was only possible because enough people decided to do their part.”
“(District 1 volunteers) gathered more than 4,000 signatures,” he said, adding that Sally Moon, Clarice McKenney and Rebecca Holland collected between 300 and 400 signatures each. Moon, McKenney and Holland were presented with gift certificates from La Chic Boutique.
Mayville said the last phase will need the continued help of every one of the 2,000 volunteers around the state who helped qualify the initiative for the ballot. “Now, we need to put extra effort into making certain enough people vote for it in November because the opposition is working hard spreading misinformation about it.
“Open Primaries are extremely popular, but, believe it or not, some voters still have not heard about Open Primaries. We have broad support from voters in both political parties and voters who are unaffiliated,” he added.
Mayville speculated that most of the questions volunteers will receive are about the Ranked-Choice Voting aspect of the initiative. “There are strong arguments in favor of Ranked-Choice Voting, one of the strongest being that it guarantees that the candidates elected truly have broad support in the community, not just from a tiny group of voters.”
If the Initiative passes in November, ” we’ll be returning to Idaho’s open primaries system that was extremely popular. The addition of ranked-choice voting means that no one’s vote will be wasted because if their first choice does not win, their second choice may.
Local volunteers will have a booth in the upcoming Boundary County Fair from August 6-10. Bonners Ferry resident Clarice McKenney, who leads the Boundary County team, urges all voters to bring questions about the initiative to volunteers in the “Yes on 1” booth, which will be just outside the front of the pavilion.