Here we go again. Idaho lawmakers want to make it harder for citizen initiatives | Opinion

Another year, another effort by Idaho Republican legislators to make it more difficult for citizens to get an initiative on the ballot.

This time it’s House Bill 652, which does a few things to make the signature-gathering process required to get an initiative on the ballot more convoluted and difficult.

Just as a reminder, Idaho already has one of the most restrictive processes to get an initiative on the ballot: Organizers are required to gather the signatures of 6% of registered voters in 18 legislative districts.

As proof that Idaho’s citizen initiative process is difficult, initiatives are rare.

After Idaho voters overturned the controversial Students Come First laws by referendum, the upset Republican-dominated Legislature in 2013 tightened the rules for initiatives to what they are today.

Since then, only three initiatives have made it to the ballot.

Ballot initiatives

Medicaid expansion, which passed, and a horse-racing gambling initiative, which failed, were on the same ballot in 2018.

Reclaim Idaho, a grass-roots Idaho nonprofit, got Medicaid expansion on the ballot (after Idaho legislators dragged their feet for years, pretending Idahoans didn’t want it).

Reclaim Idaho then successfully got enough signatures to get an education spending initiative on the ballot in 2022, before legislators in a special session passed a law that preempted the initiative, so Reclaim Idaho withdrew it from the ballot.

Now, the nonprofit is working on another initiative to get open primaries and ranked-choice voting on the November ballot. Perhaps that’s why some Republican legislators are introducing this latest initiative buster, which has an emergency clause, so it goes into effect July 1.

Let’s remember what happened the last time Idaho legislators passed restrictions on the initiative process, in 2021.

The Idaho Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional, calling it “tyranny of the minority.”

“Ultimately, the effect of SB 1110 is to prevent a perceived, yet unsubstantiated fear of the ‘tyranny of the majority,’ by replacing it with an actual ‘tyranny of the minority,’ ” according to the ruling. “This would result in a scheme that squarely conflicts with the democratic ideals that form the bedrock of the constitutional republic created by the Idaho Constitution, and seriously undermines the people’s initiative and referendum powers enshrined therein.”

With a tongue lashing like that, you’d think GOP legislators would take the hint.

Citizens’ voice

Granted, this year’s restrictions perhaps aren’t as severe as the ones in the 2021 law, but they’re still pretty bad.

In short, House Bill 652, sponsored by Reps. James Petzke, R-Meridian, and John Vander Woude, R-Nampa, would institute a monthly submission schedule, allow signers to remove their signatures, extend the signature verification period to 90 days and create a review period.

Bill sponsors use phrases like “enhance civic engagement and accountability” and “increase transparency” and “streamline” the process.

But make no mistake, the requirements simply make it harder to gather signatures, which is exactly the intention.

For example, volunteer-run organizations would have the most difficulty meeting the monthly submission requirement. Ironically, the big, well-heeled, out-of-state organizations that Republican legislators seem to fear the most likely would be the only organizations that would be able to meet these monthly reporting requirements. Big outfits with paid signature gatherers and paid organizers would be OK, but any initiative coming from a volunteer band of rural Idahoans would be dead in the water.

This is just the latest attempt by Republican legislators to make it harder to get an initiative on the ballot, because they simply don’t like what the people are saying.

Idaho’s initiative process works, and Idahoans have shown themselves to be judicious employing it. Citizens have acted when they see state legislators failing to do their jobs and when they want the actual voice of the people to decide.

The state has no compelling interest in further limiting the voice of the citizens.

Fears of Idaho being run by out-of-staters pushing ballot initiatives are just that — fears.

And legislating out of fear is the worst way to legislate.