Did Idahoans Switch Voter Registration Before Primaries?
It's on the minds of many this week--VOTING. Sure, the "election" isn't until the fall however those who have been paying attention to local politics understand that this week, Idaho faces "primaries".
What are primaries and why do they matter? Well, for elected offices that have more than one person running from one respective political party, voters need to decide who will be representing them ON the official November ballot.
In Idaho, it's most common to see the Republican Party candidate win and also here in Idaho, the Republican Party primary is "closed". This means that in order to vote in the Republican primary--you must be a REGISTERED Republican.
This year, a trend began to arise as many argue that it doesn't matter who is from any other party on the ballot in November--the large-scale victories will be "lay-ups" for the Republican party. The Office of Governor is one of these.
According to an article in the U.S. News & World Report, Idaho DID indeed see a shift in party affiliation--though, it was small. The report shares that less than 10,000 voters switched their affiliation to Republican ahead of the primary season. Even less switched to the Democratic Party, however--totaling under 300.
Wondering how many voters are in each party here in the State of Idaho?
- There are over 546,000 registered republican voters
- There are over 300,000 unaffiliated voters in Idaho
- There are about 130,000 registered democrats in Boise