BOISE, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) – Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has filed a new lawsuit in his latest challenge to the Open Primaries Act.
According to Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s office, the office filed a new lawsuit against Idaho residents in the Fourth District Court on Friday over open primary elections.
The Idaho Supreme Court dismissed the office’s previous lawsuit, and the office said the new lawsuit arose from the court’s opinion.
“This coalition collected thousands of signatures for the initiative by promising the people of Idaho that it would restore the open primary system that Idaho had before 2011, despite the Idaho Supreme Court ruling that this claim was false and that the initiative’s primary system was ‘significantly’ different from open primaries,” Labrador claimed.
Labrador claimed that the initiative abolishes party primaries and introduces ranked-choice voting in the general election. He claimed that the petition signatories were unaware that the initiative included this.
Idahoans for Open Primaries demanded that the final say on the initiative should rest with voters, not the attorney general.
“Raúl Labrador is wasting taxpayer money on a frivolous lawsuit,” said Luke Mayville, spokesman for Idahoans for Open Primaries. “The people of Idaho have made it clear that they want the opportunity to decide for themselves. We are committed to moving forward and ensuring that every voter has the opportunity to participate in every election, regardless of party affiliation.”
Mayville claimed that Labrador’s new case was without merit and that Labrador was doing everything in its power to take away voters’ voices.
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