October 21, 2024
If You Value Election Integrity, Vote ‘NO’ on Prop 1
By: Idaho Representative Julianne Young
The American people understand that if election outcomes can be manipulated or falsified, the voice that is our birthright is in jeopardy. During my six years of service as a state legislator, election integrity has been the subject of more constituent phone calls than almost anything else. Additionally, I spent many hours in State Affairs Committee hearings, working to ensure that Idaho elections yield accurate, secure results
In 2023, I sponsored Idaho’s post-election audit bill, establishing, for the first time, a state-wide audit of paper ballots to verify election results tabulated by local election officials. This post-election audit bill received unanimous, bipartisan support and became law. In 2024, I sponsored another election integrity bill, House Bill 1, requiring post-election audits to be a hand-count of paper ballots. Again, every legislator in the state, regardless of party, supported the legislation.
Now, Prop 1 proponents claim that their ballot measure will make elections more “fair” for Idahoans. The truth: Prop 1, if passed, would have devastating effects on election integrity for all; before, during, and after elections.
First, Prop 1 would reduce the accuracy of information readily available to voters. Elections are not just a popularity contest, they are a contest of ideas! That’s why healthy debate, editorials, party affiliation, etc. are important, but Prop 1 would allow candidates to self-select any party label, eliminating existing requirements of actual affiliation! Erasing meaningful party labels from the ballot is like asking voters to orient themselves to a map that has no compass, to hire a new employee without a resume, or to play in a ballgame where every player can self-select whichever team jersey they want, regardless of the team they play for. The result would surely be confusion, frustration, and an even greater decline in voter participation.
Second, Prop 1 would undermine the principle of “one man, one vote,” a foundational concept of American democracy. Prop 1 proponents attempt to sweep this second effect of Prop 1 under the carpet, preferring to refer to Prop 1 only as “open primaries.” Voters should know that Prop 1’s extensive amendments completely replace Idaho’s traditional way of voting with a confusing system that is anything but “fair.” The end result: the candidate with the most votes in the first round of paper ballots would not necessarily win, and some people’s votes would count more than other’s because complicated computer algorithms redistribute their votes repeatedly while simultaneously disqualifying other ballots.
Third, and most concerning, Prop 1 would make it absolutely impossible to conduct a meaningful post-election audit. Even under our current straight-forward system, the hand-count audit of paper ballots, which one can easily observe and verify, requires substantial time and energy, as well as concerted efforts to provide security. In May this year, our legislative district experienced a primary election where the difference between me and my opponent was a razor-thin 2-vote margin. With over 7,500 votes cast, our district saw, first-hand, the value of being able to, with confidence, audit each vote, with a random hand recount verifying the accuracy of machines. The audit in this case required two full days and the attention and expertise of dozens of individuals. Proposition 1’s complex computer-algorithm-driven tabulations would make it impossible for any group of people to ever independently audit election results on any kind of scale with any degree of accuracy or confidence.
My conclusion: Prop 1 undermines the integrity of Idaho’s election processes in a way that is only more “fair” if you are part of a group hoping to benefit from political chaos and lack of transparency. While the radical left (which also sees “redistribution of wealth” and “restructuring society” in the name of “social justice” as “fair”) might see “redistribution of the vote” as more “fair”– I don’t think this is most Idahoan’s idea of “fair.”
If you believe, as I do, that “fair” means transparent, straight-forward, and verifiable– before, during, and after elections– you will want to tell everyone you know to reject the misleading, big-dollar propaganda now bombarding Idahoans daily. Safeguard Idaho’s election integrity. Vote “NO” on Prop 1.
