Submitted by Ken Watts
The Fremont County Republican Central Committee held its November meeting on Thursday, November 9th. The key topic on the agenda was the republican presidential caucus in Idaho. Sharon Smith provided training on the caucus process. The caucus will be held on March 2, 2024 at 12 noon Mountain time. The caucus will be held in St. Anthony. All 13 Fremont County precincts will be combined because of the smaller number of voters in our county. An Idaho picture ID must be provided or a passport to vote. Student IDs will not be accepted. Ms. Smith said to expect about 10% of the registered republican voters to attend. This is dismally low. There will be just one vote. The candidates can provide a 5 minute video for the voters to view. They have to pay $50,000 to air the video and this can be reduced to $25,000 if the candidate is in the state on March 2, 2024. The Idaho delegates will be apportioned by the percentage of the vote if no candidate receives 50%, plus, of the vote. The elephant in the room for the people of Island Park was that there will be no mail in ballots or absentee ballots. You MUST attend the caucus in St. Anthony to vote for your presidential preference. I asked if I can assign a proxy to vote for me. The initial answer was NO! I objected to this. Many people in Island Park and across the state spend the winter in southern climates. They will not be in Idaho. In addition, the “shoulder season” begins in Island Park about the first of March and many businesses close and people leave for much needed vacations. Ms. Smith stated that she will take this issue to the State Republican Central Committee but she also stated that the issue had been discussed previously. I expect NO action on this issue. Very disappointing! How did we get to the point where we will not have a presidential primary election in Idaho, but rather a caucus that will leave 90% of the voters out? Well, fingers are pointing many directions and assigning blame. Some members of the Republican Party wanted to move the presidential primary for May to March to make Idaho more relevant. There argued that the candidate is already picked by May and therefore the candidates pay no attention to Idaho. Idaho only has 32 delegates to the Republican convention. The Idaho Legislature argued that it would be expensive to hold a separate presidential primary election in March. A date for the election was not set by the 2023 legislature and they adjourned with no action. There were attempts to hold a special session of the legislature to address the issue but they failed. Cost of the special session may have been the issue. You can decide who to blame. It seems like there is plenty of blame to go around. Who is the big loser? The registered republican voters who have no opportunity to attend the caucus in St. Anthony are the big losers. Few are likely to drive the 60 miles to St. Anthony from Island Park, even if you are in the State. I believe there is still time to implement a mail in ballot process so that registered republican voters are not disenfranchised.
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