Saturday the Idaho Republican Party voted to close their primary elections to just those who have registered with the party. Some party officials have also said that they are willing to sue the State of Idaho to enforce that decision. In fact former state senator Rod Beck told the Associated Press that "the closed primary was needed to weed out those who were not true Republicans."
What an outrageous statement to make. Who would have thought that in arguably the most Republican state in the nation, Republicans would be trying to "weed out" people and voters from the party. It's clearly evident that Idaho's Republican Party is fractured.
Idahoans are legendary for their sense of independence and highly protective of their privacy, especially in the voting booth. The Republican Party has voted to abolish that voting booth privacy by demanding party registration and essentially disenfranchising all those who don't wish to have their names on some party list.
An Idaho Mountain Express editorial summed it up nicely.
Closing primaries would force Idahoans to choose between fiercely private independence and voting in primary elections. That's a choice they shouldn't have to make.
The kicker is that even though these Republicans want to reduce primary voting to some exclusive club, they still want the state of Idaho, meaning all the taxpayers, to pay for it.
Idaho Democrats are committed to fighting for the rights of all Idahoans to vote in primary elections and to keep their vote private. If you'd like to help, write a letter to your local newspaper, send an email to your friends and family and if you can, make a contribution to the Idaho Democratic Party to support this fight.
Update 06.20.07 20:31: As noted in the comments, Rod Beck disputes the quote attributed to him by the AP. Also the link to the source of this article is no longer functioning; if and when a new link is found, it will be updated.
Rod Beck told the Associated Press that "the closed primary was needed to weed out those who were not true Republicans."
That is NOT a quote I made to the Associated Press or anyone else. You continue to deceive your readers by NOT correcting that statement.
I tried to access your source and I only got an error message. That is logical because the so-called quote is in error...Fix it please
Posted by: Rod Beck | June 18, 2007 at 12:29 PM
Mr. Beck, thanks for taking the time to comment here. I just returned today from out-of-town, so I haven't had a chance to respond until now.
The quote attributed to you was pulled directly from an AP article printed in the Idaho Statesman. It was archived by Idaho Public Television's "Idaho Reports" which was used for the link in this post. As you (and now I) have discovered, this link no longer works and I am attempting to find another online source for the article. As of yet, I haven't been successful.
My intentions are never to deceive readers, but to report and comment on Idaho politics. I attempt to use only credible sources and have had no reason to doubt the AP reporting in the past. I will continue to investigate this but in the meantime will update this post to note your response.
Posted by: MountainGoat | June 20, 2007 at 08:25 PM