Who’s this ‘we’?
The Idaho quote of last week: Idaho Falls attorney and state Republican Party official Bryan Smith saying, “If Idaho gets ranked choice voting, we’re finished. It’s that simple.”
That could be true, depending on how you define “we.”
Smith could be referring to the Idaho Republican Party, but that won’t work. Idaho simply has too many Republicans, and Republican-leaning voters, for any tactics like ranked choice or even gerrymandering to much change the picture.
But it could change which Republicans are in charge.
Let’s game this out.
The system of primary elections, as Idaho has known it, would go away. Instead, in the primary (in the sense of “first”) election, all candidates for a given office — specifically, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, state legislature, statewide office, and county elective offices — would appear on the ballot, and voters could pick one candidate for each of them.
