Crossover voters shouldn’t save the Republican Party from itself. Win in the general

Recently former Boise State University President Bob Kustra wrote an op-ed piece encouraging Idaho Democrats to “cross over” to register to vote in the Republican party’s closed primary election. The ask suggests that these faux Republicans vote for the modest, mainstream candidates on the ballot to ensure that fringe, lesser qualified candidates cannot win. His theory is based on the widely accepted reality that the candidates who prevail in Idaho’s closed Republican primary election will win handily in the general election in November. The crossover voters are then free to register as Democrats after the primary and vote for candidates of their choice (in either party) in the open, general election.

Idaho Republicans suddenly need Idaho Democrats to keep the growing cadre of patently unqualified Republican candidates (several of whom currently hold high office) from gaining any more keys to the kingdom.

Mainstream Idaho Republicans do not agree with their fellow fringe Republicans on much, but they are of the same party.

Nationally, the Republican party is undertaking the most breathtaking dismantling of voting rights ever seen in history. The Idaho Legislature is fully on board with this destruction of democracy in seeking to limit convenience voting at drop-off boxes, mail-in balloting and similar means of participation in the body politic. The goal of these endeavors is to achieve Republican control of every local, state and national election through processes designed to dissuade Democrats from exercising the franchise. These anti-voting measures serve no other purpose, and they certainly don’t address voter fraud – which election officials acknowledge is nonexistent in Idaho.

In the same breath, Idaho’s mainstream Republicans are asking Idaho Democrats to save them from themselves by voting for the very establishment that is busily hamstringing several means by which ballots can even be cast.

My suggestion for preventing fringe, unqualified Republican candidates from gaining office is simpler than primary election crossover voting. Let the Republicans choose their candidates in the closed primary without crossover Democrats saving them from themselves. If the fringe candidates win in a primary that presumably decides the general, then mainstream Republicans can support and vote for Democrats in the open general election, and we can save each other.

This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 4:00 AM.