Former Idaho Attorney General Jim Jones pushed back against claims that nonpartisan open primaries would lead to gun control in a recent op-ed in the Idaho Press – calling it a fear mongering tactic that has no basis in reality.

“[Greg] Pruett, who operates a variety of propaganda outlets (all of which have “donate” buttons), admits that the OPI (open primaries initiative) is not a direct threat to gun rights,” Jones writes.

“He claims it’s an indirect threat because it will ‘make Idaho more like California.’ What Pruett is really concerned about is the fact that the OPI will break the stranglehold that his extremist allies have over who gets elected to public office.”

He added that “voters can rest easy. There is absolutely no evidence to support the claim that the OPI will cause gun control. Neither will it cause warts or male pattern baldness. It will only cause good government in the Gem State”

Idaho voters will have a chance to overhaul their election system in November. A proposition, placed on the ballot by Idahoans for Open Primaries, would implement a nonpartisan Top 4 primary with ranked choice voting in the general election.

This system may have evolved from the nonpartisan Top 2 system in California, but it mirrors the Top 4 model Alaska voters approved in 2020. In nonpartisan primaries, all voters and candidates participate on a single ballot, regardless of party or lack thereof.

It would grant access to the most critical stage of the elections process to nearly 300,000 independent voters and voters registered outside the Republican and Democratic Parties.

Idaho is largely a one-party state. Fifty-nine (59) of the 70 seats in the state House of Representatives are held by Republicans. Its entire congressional delegation (for House and Senate) are Republicans.

Republicans winning won’t change under a nonpartisan open primary system. Research supports Jones’ claim that Top 4 will mostly temper the political extremes and prevent only a minority of voters from dictating electoral outcomes.

A research team looked at the 2022 electoral outcomes in Alaska, which was the first election cycle the state used its Top 4 with RCV system. What they found was not only is the system supported by a majority of voters, but it also produced cross-partisan results.

Republican US Sen Lisa Murkowski, for example, won re-election because she had support from Republicans, independents, and a small group of Democrats. She beat out the more ideologically extreme Kelly Tshibaka.

Under the old, closed partisan primary system, Tshibaka would likely have won because Murkowski would not have made it out of the low-turnout primaries – giving voters a candidate that did not have the same broad appeal.

And thus, a minority of the electorate would have decided the outcome. 

The political landscape in Idaho shows that nearly all elections are decided in the primary stage, meaning that in a system in which political parties can determine who can vote in these taxpayer-funded elections, the dominant political party and its allied special interests have the most influence over electoral outcomes.

This is why those who benefit from the status quo will not only fight nonpartisan election reform, but will also make claims that it will lead to radical policy shifts, such as gun control in a state where that is all but impossible.

Jones, a Republican, is not only a former state attorney general. He is also a former justice on the Idaho Supreme Court. He asserts that gun control policies couldn't happen because of state constitutional provisions.

“The Idaho Constitution contains a strong prohibition against gun controls,” he writes.

“Article 1, Section 11, proclaims: ‘The people have the right to keep and bear arms, which shall not be abridged.’ That cannot be changed without a constitutional amendment, which would require a two-thirds vote of each House and then a majority of Idaho voters.”

The nonpartisan primary proposal in Idaho has support from several Republicans, including Jones, former Gov. Butch Otter, former state GOP Vice-Chair Sandy Patano, former Lieutenant Governor Jack Riggs, and a long list of lawmakers and other public officials and civil servants.