By Clarice McKenney
An engaged group watched the documentary on Alaska’s Open Primaries called “Majority Rules” Saturday at the Sandpoint Community Center. The screening was presented by Veterans for Idaho Voters (V4IV), a nonprofit grassroots organization that is part of the coalition that gathered signatures to qualify the Citizen’s Initiative for the November ballot as Proposition 1. V4IV will show the 90-minute film for free in Bonners Ferry October 26
Gray Henderson of Bonners Ferry told those gathered in Sandpoint that his group is made up of Idaho veterans whose basic premise is to advocate for veterans, fair elections, civil politics and sensible policies. “We also advocate for citizen initiatives like Open Primaries. Out of the 160,000 vets in Idaho (the sixth largest number of vets in the country), 80,000 of us are Independents. We’re pretty independent minded and Idaho is a good place for us to enjoy the freedom available to us.”
Following the hour and a half showing, Henderson, an Army vet, and Christie Wood, a member of the board of directors of V4IV from Coeur d’Alene and veteran of the Air Force, led a discussion and answered questions from the audience. There was major consensus in the room that the film should be put on YouTube or some other major media form to get the truths about Alaska’s Open Primaries to a larger part of the state’s voting population.
“We’re trying to get it available on demand to view at home on computers,” said Henderson. “I highly recommend that undecided voters view the film when it comes available. Also, Boundary County undecided voters have a special opportunity to watch the film with others on Saturday October 26, at 2 pm at the Pearl Theater.”
One woman in attendance said that she and her husband attended a No on Prop 1 meeting at a church in Bonners Ferry September 19th, and a main speaker said she was a vet who had been a poll worker and that her family had left Alaska because of Open Primaries there. “She told us that poll workers were prohibited from explaining how to use the new Ranked-Choice Voting system,” said the woman. “But this film clearly shows poll workers doing that very thing to help voters. She also told us that supporters pushed Alaska Open Primaries into law just to reelect Senator Lisa Murkowski.”
Mike Miller, a resident of Bonner County, who lived in Alaska for 40 years, commented on the film. “I recognized so many of my family and friends in that documentary,” he said.
Miller said that Murkowski initially did not even want Open Primaries. “This documentary was an accurate representation of the Open Primaries process in Alaska.”