September 30, 2026
If You Live in Idaho This Is For You
Get out and vote. Otherwise, stop complaining.
By: Brian Lenney
The election’s coming up on November 3rd, and early voting in Canyon County opens October 19th (check with your county clerk for yours).
You can also request an absentee ballot and mail it in early.
No matter what you do, though…
Make sure you check your sample ballot before you mail in the real one or show up on Election Day to vote in person.
Just click this link, enter your info, and you’ll see exactly what’s on your ballot.
It’s an exact copy to help you prepare at home so you don’t feel flustered at the polls (you need to do this because every ballot in Idaho is different depending on your address).
So, before you do anything, check your sample ballot here.
There are a few races that’ll be on everybody’s ballot, like governor and Congress. My advice is to vote for the most conservative person in each race, obviously.
And that’s almost always the Republican.
And while I’m tempted to punish weak, needlessly cowardly Republicans in the general election, that should be saved for the primaries. We can’t afford to put Democrats or wacky Libertarians into office because we’re mad at our Republican representatives.
The trade-off just isn’t worth it.
But what I really want you to know about are the four questions at the end of your ballot, because they’re the ones people get confused by.
Being a conservative means we conserve things. Our culture, our language, and our respect for life are what set Idaho apart from every liberal state around us. Three of these ballot questions decide whether we keep them:
- HJR 4: Only the Legislature can legalize drugs.
This amends the Idaho Constitution so only the Legislature can legalize marijuana, narcotics, or other psychoactive drugs. Legalization could no longer come through a ballot initiative.
I’m voting: YES.Look at our neighbors. Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and Montana all legalized recreational marijuana, and all four did it by ballot initiative. Oregon went furthest. In 2020 an initiative decriminalized hard drugs like fentanyl and meth, Portland’s streets filled with open drug use, and by 2024 even Oregon’s own liberal legislature had to walk it back.
Every one of those campaigns was bankrolled by a drug industry that figured out it’s cheaper to buy signature drives than to win over a legislature.
Idaho is one of the last holdouts in the West, and that industry wants us next. I’d rather this decision sit with legislators you can look in the eye and vote out. Out-of-state money never has to answer to you.
- HJR 6: English as Idaho’s official language.
This adds English to the Idaho Constitution as our official language. Government meetings, documents, court proceedings, and public school instruction would be in English, except where federal law requires otherwise. Right now it’s only in statute, and a future legislature could repeal it.
I’m voting: YES.
I sponsored this bill in the Senate because a common language is what makes us one people. Go to Los Angeles County and you’ll find election materials printed in more than a dozen languages. That’s what it looks like when a state stops expecting newcomers to learn its language and join it. This costs almost nothing and sets a clear expectation: if you come here, learn English and become an Idahoan. And it shouldn’t depend on whoever controls the Legislature in a given year.
Putting it in the Constitution means it stays put.
- Proposition 1: The abortion “reproductive freedom” initiative.
This creates a right to abortion up to fetal viability, and after viability under a broad “medical emergency” definition that reaches a woman’s health as well as her life. It adds a “right of privacy” over reproductive decisions and requires any restriction to be “narrowly tailored” to the patient’s health. It also shields providers and anyone who “assists” from penalties. It would overturn Idaho’s current pro-life law.
I’m voting: NO.This is WORSE than California’s abortion law.
Abortion up to viability, a “health” exception broad enough to cover almost anything after that, and a “right of privacy” judges can stretch as far as they like (that’s exactly how Montana’s courts got there). “Narrowly tailored” is courtroom language, and it’s there so judges can strike down limits Idaho passes. That could put things like parental consent for minors in front of a judge.
Idaho is one of the few states in the West that still protects unborn children. We made that choice through the people we elected. Prop 1 hands it to the courts and would make us LEFT of California.
Vote NO.
That’s where I stand on those things.
I don’t care (and I suspect you don’t either) about the state gun. Pick whatever you want.
Make a plan to vote by November 3, and forward this to a neighbor who hasn’t flipped their ballot over yet. And make sure you get your family and friends to vote. This whole low turnout thing is starting to wear on me.
Cheers,
Brian
