Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador sued over ‘deceptive’ ballot initiative titles
A coalition seeking to make Idaho’s primary elections more accessible and establish a ranked-choice voting mechanism has sued Attorney General Raúl Labrador, alleging he made false and misleading statements to the public about the group’s ballot initiative.
Idaho law directs the attorney general to review proposed ballot initiatives and assign them “ballot titles,” which summarize the purpose of an initiative and appear on the ballot when voters weigh in.
Idahoans for Open Primaries, a coalition that includes citizen advisory group Reclaim Idaho, last month filed a ballot measure to make primaries open to all voters, regardless of party affiliation, and to create a ranked-choice voting system for general elections. Labrador, a Republican, completed the ballot titles for the open primary initiative, and the coalition Monday filed a lawsuit challenging the titles in the Idaho Supreme Court.
Former Idaho Supreme Court Justice and one-time Attorney General Jim Jones said Labrador’s titles are “deceptive and designed to create prejudice against the measure.” Jones, who campaigned against Labrador last year, is a member of Idahoans for Open Primaries.
“The attorney general is setting the stage for a campaign of confusion and deception against the initiative,” Jones said in a news release.
The lawsuit asked the Idaho Supreme Court to reject Labrador’s titles in favor of the coalition’s and to provide the group an extension to collect signatures.
To qualify for the general election ballot in November 2024, the coalition must collect signatures from 6% of Idaho voters who were registered for the last general election — nearly 63,000 people — along with signatures from 6% of registered voters in 18 of 35 legislative districts before May 1.
Beth Cahill, spokesperson for Labrador, told the Idaho Statesman that “as a rule we don’t comment on pending litigation,” but she pointed to a statement in a June 30 letter that Labrador wrote to Secretary of State Phil McGrane.
“(Attorney General) Labrador has furnished a ballot measure title with a true and impartial statement of the purpose of the measure and without prejudice or partisanship, consistent with his requirements under Idaho law,” Cahill said by email. “If it is required, we will be happy to defend the AG’s fulfillment of his statutory duties in litigation.”
AG aimed to ‘bolster’ future lawsuit, group says
Attorneys for the open primaries coalition accused Labrador of making false statements and using obscure language to confuse voters about the initiative. And they accused Labrador of using the ballot titles to tee-up a future legal challenge against the initiative.
Labrador in the titles falsely claimed that the initiative “would require voting for each candidate on the ballot in order of preference.” The initiative says, “Voters are not required to rank every candidate.”
Labrador also described the proposed primary system as a “nonparty blanket primary.” Attorneys for the coalition wrote that the phrase is “an obscure term that is almost entirely absent from common usage,” and that “open primary” is preferred.
“In dereliction of his official duties, the attorney general has prepared ballot titles that do not conform to the law,” attorneys for the group wrote in the lawsuit. “He has instead drafted titles that express his strong bias against the initiative and his intention to use his power to defeat it.”
Last month, the attorney general’s office released an analysis of the proposed initiative and argued that it doesn’t withstand constitutional scrutiny. Labrador and Idaho Solicitor General Theo Wold, meanwhile, have criticized ranked-choice voting on social media.
In the June 30 letter to McGrane, Labrador wrote that the initiative is “ineligible for placement on the ballot” and the attorney general’s office would attempt to block it if it qualifies for the ballot. The proposed measure violates a state constitutional provision requiring that initiatives deal with a single subject, Labrador wrote.
“We will litigate that objection if and when it becomes ripe,” he wrote.
Labrador’s title for the initiative says it’s a “measure to (1) replace voter selection of party nominees with nonparty blanket primary; (2) require ranked-choice voting for general elections.”
The coalition attorneys argued that Labrador “gratuitously” divided the title into two parts — one regarding the primary and one regarding the general election — to “bolster” a future lawsuit arguing the initiative covers two subjects.
“The purpose of the initiative is a multi-part reform of the electoral system in Idaho and includes multiple policy changes that fall under the single common subject of elections,” the attorneys wrote.
