Idaho initiative ruling is a victory for voters and a message to Republican legislators

Monday’s decision by the Idaho Supreme Court that Idaho’s new restrictive initiative process is unconstitutional is a victory for the citizens of Idaho — and should be a lesson loud and clear to Idaho’s Republican legislators who voted for this bad bill.

The Idaho Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Senate Bill 1110, sponsored by Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, and passed this year by Idaho’s majority party, amounted to a “tyranny of the minority” because it required signatures from 6% of voters in every single legislative district.

As this board has pointed out before, that amounts to veto power for any one district, meaning a citizens initiative could obtain enough signatures in 34 legislative districts, but if there are not enough signatures in one district, the initiative can’t get on the ballot.

The Idaho Supreme Court agreed and restored the law back to what it was before: 6% of all Idaho voters but in 18 legislative districts.

“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.”

The decision is a victory for Idaho citizens because it restores a reasonable ability to get an initiative on the ballot, whether it’s education funding, horse race betting or Medicaid expansion.

Reclaim Idaho is the organization that successfully got Medicaid expansion on the ballot and is trying to get an education funding measure on the ballot.

“Thousands of Idahoans are breathing sighs of relief today,” Luke Mayville, Reclaim Idaho co-founder, said in a press release. “In the face of an assault on the initiative process by the Idaho Legislature, our Supreme Court has fulfilled its obligation to protect the rights of every Idahoan.”

This should also be a clarion call to the Republican legislators who brought forth this unconstitutional bill and voted for it.

“Members of the Idaho House Republican Caucus are disappointed at the Idaho Supreme Court’s decision limiting the voice of rural voters,” Idaho House Speaker Scott Bedke said in a press release. “These changes to the voter referendum/initiative process would’ve served to increase voter involvement and inclusivity, especially in the corners of the state too often forgotten by some. We believe that all the 35 legislative districts, every part of Idaho, should be included in this important process, unfortunately, the Supreme Court apparently disagrees.”

Of course they’re disappointed.

The Republican supermajority of the Idaho Legislature refused to act on Medicaid expansion for several years. It was only because of a citizens initiative that Medicaid expansion happened.

Medicaid expansion passed with 61% of the vote and with a majority in many rural districts.

It’s fair to say that a majority of Idaho voters were disenfranchised for years by a negligent Legislature. Only when a citizens initiative came on the ballot was the will of the voter heard.

And the Republican Legislature’s reaction to that? Make it harder for the voters to get something on the ballot. To their credit, some Republicans — Sens. Dan Johnson and Jim Woodward, and Reps. Dustin Manwaring, Marco Erickson, Marc Gibbs, Caroline Nilsson Troy, Mike Kingsley and Fred Wood — voted against the bill, but even combined with all of the Democratic legislators, it wasn’t enough to kill it, and Gov. Brad Little signed it.

Despite the Republicans’ claim, the current citizen initiative process doesn’t limit the voice of rural voters. If anything, their misguided law would have made it harder for rural citizens to get an initiative on the ballot. If there’s an issue important to rural voters now, all they have to do is get signatures from 6% of Idaho’s registered voters in 18 rural legislative districts. With the more strict requirements, that initiative would have to go into places like Boise and Meridian, where voters might not be so keen on rural issues. Boise’s more urban District 19 would have had veto power over any such initiative.

Plus, rural voters get a say in every initiative that makes it to the ballot, and that’s on Election Day. They’re not disenfranchised.

Monday’s ruling was a victory for all Idaho voters — rural and urban — and a clear signal to Republican legislators that they were on the wrong side of democracy.

Statesman editorials are the unsigned opinion expressing the consensus of the Idaho Statesman’s editorial board. Board members are opinion editor Scott McIntosh, editor Chadd Cripe and newsroom editors Dana Oland and Jim Keyser and community members J.J. Saldaña and Christy Perry.