BOISE, ID – After Idaho’s 2024 presidential caucus drew low voter turnout, Republican state lawmakers are considering reinstating the presidential primary.
About 93% of Idaho’s registered Republicans didn’t vote in GOP presidential caucus
Instead of a typical presidential primary election in 2024, Idaho switched its process for voters to select presidential party nominees to a caucus, where only in-person voting was allowed at the Republican caucus. About 7% of registered Republican Idaho voters turned out for the caucus, compared to a nearly 26% turnout for Idaho’s 2020 presidential primary election, the Idaho Capital Sun reported.
Idaho’s voter turnout for the 2024 presidential caucus was “dismal,” Secretary of State Phil McGrane told state lawmakers Wednesday.
The shift came because the Idaho Legislature had seemingly unintentionally eliminated the presidential primary election through a 2023 bill.
Ahead of the 2028 presidential election, the Idaho Legislature is considering at least two competing bills to bring back the presidential primary election.
How do the bills to reinstate Idaho’s presidential primary election differ?
One bill headed to the House floor, House Bill 638, would have the state hold the presidential primary election in March — separately from the state’s May primary elections for state legislative seats.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kyle Harris, R-Lewiston, would also require presidential candidates to pay a $50,000 fee to have their name on Idaho’s ballots. The fees are meant to help offset the state’s estimated $2.5 million cost to run the next presidential primary.
A separate bill, introduced in the Senate State Affairs Committee on Wednesday, would hold Idaho’s presidential primary election in May in tandem with the state’s other primary elections. Bill sponsor Sen. Jim Guthrie, R-McCammon, said the caucus “estranges a lot of voters from the process.”
Guthrie’s bill was not immediately available on the Legislature’s website.
Why the timing of the primary election matters
The debate over timing of the presidential primary has been long running.
In pushing for earlier voting in 2012, party officials argued that presidential candidates will likely have already secured their party’s nomination by the time of Idaho’s May primaries.
McGrane, a Republican who serves as the state’s top election official, told lawmakers Wednesday that he preferred holding the presidential primary in May, arguing that the later date is more cost effective and draws more voters to turnout to the state’s other primaries. Presidential elections tend to have higher turnout than other elections.
“I’ve heard it resoundingly in my role that Idahoans want to be able to vote. Anything that the Legislature can do to restore the presidential primary to make that happen, I’m in support of,” McGrane told the House State Affairs Committee, before it sent to the House floor House Bill 638, which would hold the presidential primary in March.
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.
