Letters: Why are Idaho Republicans so dead-set on reducing college student turnout? | Opinion

Watching Christian nationalist and Idaho state senator from District 1, Scott Herndon, reminded me of the old saying, “smooth as silk, sincere as polyester,” Friday in the Senate State Affairs Committee. He could barely suppress a smirk when he suggested that it would be OK to not allow student IDs for voting, as he proposes in his bill H124, because those students that don’t have a driver’s license can always vote using an affidavit at the polls. He didn’t happen to mention that he is also co-sponsor on H137 which would ban the affidavit.

This obvious deception reflects the disdain many Republicans have towards young people voting. The Idaho Republican party even prohibits the Young Republicans, as well as the Republican Women’s Federation, from voting in party politics. Herndon and his new bestie, Secretary of State Phil McGrane, felt very comfortable repeatedly stating that only 104 students used their student IDs in the November 2022 election, implying no big deal if those students are denied their constitutional right to vote. If even one person was denied their right to buy a gun, you can be sure Herndon’s hair would be on fire.

Jean McClain, Clarkston, Washington

Remember Citizens United?

“Make America Great Again” is an absurd lie with no chance of ever being reality. Our fate was sealed in 2010 when the US Supreme Court in “Citizens United vs. FEC” that Corporations and their wealthy donors can spend an unlimited amount of money to buy elections. The dissent written by Justice Stevens noted that “A democracy cannot function effectively when its laws are being bought and sold.” So here we are today living in a corrupt “nation” run by Corporations and our 1% ruling elite that buy elections with lies and write laws that maximize the exploitation of us for their windfall profits.

Wage disparity is alive and growing. The top 10% of our richest households own 70% of our wealth. The top 1% own 132 times what the bottom 99% own. A fellow human being in our world dies every 4 seconds due to wealth inequality. So next time you tuck your hair under your MAGA red hat and pull the Republican lever on that voting machine, think about killing a person every 4 seconds.

Kurt Smith, Boise

Why kill the initiative?

According to ABC News, 58 bills filed in 2022 in state legislatures across the U.S. were explicitly designed to make it harder for citizens to put initiatives on the ballot. Idaho’s SJR101 would require initiative backers to get signatures from at least 6% of voters living in all 35 Idaho legislative districts, up from the current 18 districts. SJR101 backers say that this new law will make the process more democratic. But SJR101 highlights a growing problem in our country: Legislation passed under the guise of extending democracy that does the exact opposite. Yes, requiring signatures from 35 districts would give voters a say in whether an initiative would be placed on the ballot. But getting signatures from all 35 districts is so difficult that, if passed, SJR101 will prevent another initiative from ever appearing on another ballot. Idahoans have passed initiatives to establish the Department of Fish & Game (1938), implement a ban on dredge mining (1954), approve a property tax cut (1978), expand Medicaid (2018), and increase education funding (2022). Initiatives are the only way citizens can propose important changes to how we govern ourselves. Why do Idaho legislators want to make this already difficult process virtually impossible?

Hobart Swan, Boise