Idaho governor signs into law legislation to raise bar on ballot initiatives

Gov. Brad Little has signed into law a bill that would change the requirements for gathering signatures to bring a ballot initiative forward to Idaho voters.

Little confirmed he signed Senate Bill 1110 on Saturday in a letter to Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, who presides over the Idaho Senate.

The bill requires organizers of a ballot initiative to gather signatures from 6% of voters in each of the state’s 35 legislative districts. 

Current law requires signatures from 6% of voters in 18 legislative districts. 

In the letter, Little said his reason for signing it was that he believes in the bill’s intent to reach rural communities and allow every voter across the state to have the opportunity to decide whether a question is placed on the ballot. He acknowledged the bill may go too far in the limits it places on signature gathering, but said that is ultimately up to the courts to decide.

Supporters of the law say it is necessary to make sure voters from rural and remote areas of the state have a say in the initiative or referendum process.

“It is inclusive, and it ensures our rural and urban citizens have a choice in the creation of law,” Rep. Jim Addis, R-Coeur d’Alene, said earlier this month.

One legislator said she flat out doesn’t approve of resident-driven initiatives, despite the fact the Idaho Constitution gives residents that right.

“I am opposed to ballot initiatives,” Rep. Karey Hanks, R-St. Anthony, said in a floor debate earlier this month. “Voting for this is a compromise because I believe that ballot initiatives are direct democracy, and that is not what we have. We have a constitutional republic.”

But opponents said the bill would limit voters’ ability to bring an initiative forward and that it silences their voices.

“If y’all are afraid of what the people of Idaho want to do and what their agenda is, and you feel it is important to block that, you may be in the wrong line of work,” House Minority Leader Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, said April 7.

The bill passed the House 51-18 and cleared the Senate 26-9. 

On April 8, Jim Jones, a former Idaho Supreme Court chief justice, delivered a petition to Little with 16,000 signatures urging him to veto the bill.

“People are concerned about Senate Bill 1110, which would make it almost impossible to get an initiative or referendum on the ballot,” Jones said during an April 8 Statehouse press conference.

Reclaim Idaho, the organization that led the ballot initiative to expand Medicaid in Idaho in 2018, filed an initiative earlier this month with the Idaho Secretary of State that would preserve the traditional signature requirements for ballot initiatives in the state. The initiative will move forward if court challenges to the newly signed law are unsuccessful. 

Bill signing is a victory for the Legislature 

The Idaho Legislature has a decades-long history of pushing back against citizen ballot initiatives. 

In 2002, the Legislature repealed term limits for elected officials, which voters had passed via a 1994 ballot initiative. 

In 2019, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 1159, which would have cut the time available for signature gathering and increased the number of legislative districts from which signatures were required. However, Little vetoed that bill.

Most bills that are signed into law take effect on July 1, the first day of the state’s new fiscal year. But the sponsors of Senate Bill 1110 included an emergency clause that made this bill effective immediately.