J.D. FOSTER: Dems Trying To Change Voting Rules In State They Can’t Win Under Current System

The political World Series between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris gets most of the attention along with a handful of U.S. Senate races, but conservatives are fighting crucial local battles as well — as the recent story out of Ohio reminds. Another eye-opening battle is against Idaho’s Democrat-driven Proposition 1.

The motivation for Proposition 1 is simple. Not so long ago, Democrats could compete with Republicans in Idaho. Today, Idaho is ruby red and growing more conservative by the year.

You feel excluded and voiceless if you’re an Idaho liberal. That is understandable. Try being a Republican in California or Massachusetts.

How does an activist Democrat respond? You try to change the rules to improve your chances. If a level playing field with honest referees is not working for you, try tilting the field or bribing the refs. Enter Proposition 1.

The first element of Proposition 1 would abolish Idaho’s closed primary system and replace it with an open primary in which all voters may vote on any candidate.

By way of analogy, imagine you need a new car. You do your research, consult with your family and narrow your options. Great, ready to haggle.

Now your homeowner’s association says your neighbor has an equal say in what kind of car you buy. After all, you park on the street and your neighbor will see your car. It doesn’t matter whether your neighbor is a hands-on gearhead or owns a driveway full of rusting Fiats, they get an equal say on what you buy.

Sounds nuts, but that is the first part of Proposition 1 in a nutshell.

Under the current system, Republicans pick their nominees and Democrats pick theirs. Then they compete head-to-head in the general election. Sound familiar?

Yet a pro-Proposition 1 TV ad says it would allow hundreds of thousands of taxpaying Idahoans to vote. That is false. Nothing in current law precludes Idahoans from voting.

The closed primary means if you want to vote but don’t want to register as a Republican, then you can vote in the Democratic primary. And if you don’t want to affiliate with either, or with a third party, then that’s up to you, but by default you have voted with your feet not to participate in the party system. And note that being a “taxpaying” Idahoan has nothing to do with the issue one way or the other.

Proposition 1’s second element would institute a survival-of-the-fittest jungle system, aka “ranked-choice voting” for determining winners in lieu of having each voter choose one candidate per office with the top vote-getter winning.

The onus falls on proponents of Proposition 1 to explain why jungle voting is objectively better. They have made no attempt to do so. They just hope their open-primaries ruse carries jungle voting to a win.

Simple and natural, the current voting system has been used for years in Idaho and around the country.

The only reason to suggest a change from simple and obvious to complex and confusing is because proponents don’t like the election outcomes and are trying to rig the rules to improve their chances. Their frustration does not justify a change but it should alert Idaho conservatives to kill this thing.

The bigger story is that when Democrats lose under the rules, they break or try to change the rules. The Supreme Court decides against President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness? He just goes ahead anyway.

Don’t like many Supreme Court rulings? Try to pack the court.

Frustrated you can’t get your ideas through the U.S. Senate? Kill the filibuster.

Conservatives need to do more than just push back. It is time to look for ways to take the offensive. The best defense is a good offense.

J.D. Foster is the former chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget and former chief economist and senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. He now resides in relative freedom in the hills of Idaho.

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