Idaho Open Primaries holds signature event

By Hale Gates
Reader Contributor

Volunteers for Idahoans for Open Primaries held an event for local volunteers at the Sandpoint branch of the East Bonner County Library over the weekend of March 23-24, providing an opportunity to notarize signed petitions, hear an update for volunteers in Legislative District 1 on statewide progress and announce a “walkathon” to collect signatures leading up to the statewide submission deadline.

Despite cold and rainy weather, volunteers turned out to the library’s community room and appeared upbeat and encouraged.

“It was a fun and energizing event,” said organizer Christine Moon. “Nearly 200 new signatures were turned in”

Reclaim Idaho co-founder Luke Mayville, and a driving force behind the Idahoans for Open Primaries initiative, spoke briefly to the volunteers to give an update on the statewide status of the initiative. 

To date, 18 of Idaho’s legislative districts have individually qualified the initiative for the ballot in November. Idahoans for Open Primaries has also collected more than 76,000 signatures statewide, and aims to collect between 90,000 and 100,000 total signatures. The initiative effort plans to actively collect signatures until Saturday, April 27 — slightly before the submission deadline, to allow volunteers time to properly verify and notarize signature pages.

Dist. 1 volunteers intend to finish the signature collection phase with a door-knocking push. The upcoming “walkathon” is intended to reach as many voters as possible before the deadline. Though Dist. 1 has qualified, local volunteers hope to contribute to the statewide total.

At the end of his comments on Zoom, Mayville reminded the crowd of the goal of the initiative: “This is not about giving power to one party or another, this is about giving power to voters.”