Independents Continue Fight to Preserve Idaho Open Primary

Idaho Voters Consider Themselves Independent

• Closed primary bill moves on to full Senate (Associated  Press, Magic Valley Times News) Winmill's ruling is being appealed by the New York-based Committee for a United Independent Party. The group's lawyer Gary Allen warned the public record provision could infringe on constitutional privacy rights. Citing a recent Boise State University survey showing the majority of Idaho voters view themselves as independents, Allen cautioned lawmakers against setting rules that could keep independents home on primary election day.
• Closed Primaries Upset Independents (Posted by DFO, Spokesman Review/Huckleberries Online) Gary Allen, attorney for a group of independent voters, told the Senate State Affairs Committee, “I'm here on my 50th birthday, and I can't think of any better way to spend it than talking about democracy.”
• ‘Poke independent voters in the eye’ (Posted by Betsy, Spokesman Review/Eye On Boise) “In our view, this is an unnecessary intrusion on voters' privacy,” Allen said. “Frankly, our clients do not want to do this, and we've seen no evidence that other independents in Idaho want to do this either. At a time when Republican Party identification in Idaho is falling like a stone … I would not think that the Republican Party would want to poke independent voters in the eye.”
• Trillhaase: GOP Moderates Surrender (Posted by DFO,  Spokesman Review) Already under siege from the ideological faction that gave you bills to nullify the U.S. Constitution and put a gun in every college student's hand, Idaho's moderate Republicans lost the war earlier this month. U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the party apparatchiks could close the state's GOP primary to all but card-carrying Republican voters
• ‘Keep known political operatives from participating in another party’s primary’ (Posted by Betsy, Spokesman Review/Eye On Boise) Senate Minority Leader Edgar Malepeai, D-Pocatello, asked why party-affiliated people would have to switch their party affiliation by the end of the filing period in March or not at all for that year's primary, under the bill. “You may not even know what the roster is at that date,” said Sen. Michelle Stennett, D-Ketchum.