Idaho Legislature: Ask legislators to VOTE YES on H0002 - Initiative petition, vote threshold (posted 01/28/25)

• Bill: legislature.idaho.gov/s…

• Contact Legislators: emailidaho.com

(Check the linked page or use My Bill Tracker for the bill’s current status.)

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This bill would amend sections 34-1811 and 34-1813, Idaho Code, increasing the vote threshold necessary to pass a statewide initiative from 50% + 1 to 60%. It would leave in place the 50% + 1 vote threshold for passing referendums. This is a good attempt to fix Idaho's broken initiative process.

Many initiatives are funded by outside-of-Idaho money and end up moving the state away from its foundational principles of fair elections and small government. For example, H0002 would have required considerably more voters to favor such expensive and ill-advised changes as Ranked Choice Voting (failed, fortunately) and Medicare Expansion (passed, with disastrous budget consequences).

Related:

• Idaho Freedom Foundation: Explains how the bill would help restore some constitutional principles currently lost to the initiative process: idahofreedom.org/house-…

• Secure Idaho Elections: Explains how the current initiative process bypasses the important deliberative work that goes on in the legislature: