2024 marks a historic election year with lots of focus on, not just who gets elected but also on how our election system works at both a national and local level.

An initiative to create an open primary and switch to a ranked choice voting system in Idaho will appear on the November ballot.

“It’s a critical moment,” Corkill said. With three out of five trustee positions up for election Nov. 5 and two incumbent trustees choosing not to run for reelection, the races could shift the balance of power on the NIC board.

Idaho allows political parties to close their primaries, and only registered Republicans are allowed to vote in Republican primaries. Idaho Democrats chose not to close their elections. In Idaho, where most voters are registered Republicans, the GOP primary typically determines who wins in the general election.

For nearly a year, volunteers seeking to change Idaho’s elections blanketed the state to gather signatures from citizens supportive of bringing an end to the closed primaries. The petition also called for a move to a ranked-choice voting system for general elections.

A district court judge in Idaho has denied Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s latest legal challenge to a ballot issue that seeks to end the state’s closed party primary elections and create ranked-choice voting in the general election.

An initiative that would open Idaho’s primary elections to all voters and implement ranked choice voting for general elections will appear on the November ballot.

A federal court in Idaho did not totally dismiss Robert F. Kennedy’s allegations that the state’s election rules, which require independent presidential candidates to name a VP before the political parties’ candidates must,

Timing is a factor in the open primary initiative case; the first absentee ballots in Idaho are expected to be mailed out later this month.