Bill would raise voting threshold to 60% for ballot initiatives

BOISE (Idaho Capital Sun) — Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa, introduced a bill in the House State Affairs Committee Wednesday morning to amend Idaho’s law related to the voting threshold for statewide ballot initiatives and referendums.

Idaho Code currently states that “no measure shall be adopted unless it shall receive an affirmative majority of the aggregate number of votes cast on such measure.” This means an initiative or referendum can pass so long as it receives 50% of the vote plus one.

Skaug’s bill proposes to change that language, increasing the threshold to at least 60% of votes.

Skaug told the committee the purpose of the bill is to fix Idaho’s “broken” initiative process.

“It’s all out-of-state money, or most of it’s out-of-state money, millions of dollars, coming into our state to affect and change what we as a Legislature would have done as representatives of the people,” he said about state initiatives. “…This is one way to level the playing field a little bit by raising it to 60%.”

In Idaho, a ballot initiative is a form of direct democracy. It allows Idaho residents to place and vote on laws on a ballot, independent of the Idaho Legislature.

The bill so far has 11 legislative co-sponsors in the Idaho House and Senate. The committee voted to move the bill forward, clearing the way for a full public hearing at a later date.

Rep. Todd Achilles, D-Boise, said he has concerns he wants Skaug to address moving forward, pointing out that the Idaho Supreme Court in 2021 ruled that initiatives are a fundamental right to Idahoans.

“We’re putting a 60% threshold on citizens, on Idaho citizens, when we as legislators only have a 50% threshold, so I think we have to justify that more clearly,” he said.

Achilles also asked the sponsors to address the implications of this change.

“Had we had a 60% threshold on past initiatives, we would not have passed sales tax relief, property tax relief, the homeowners exemption, and a couple of others,” Achilles said. “So I think it’s important that we look at the totality of this.”

Reclaim Idaho co-founder responds to bill

Reclaim Idaho co-founder Luke Mayville in an email said the bill, if passed, would dramatically change and restrict ballot initiative rights. Reclaim Idaho has worked on and supported several initiatives in the recent past, including a successful initiative in 2018 that expanded Medicaid access to Idaho’s working poor and a failed Proposition 1 initiative in 2024 that would have opened Idaho’s closed primary elections and established ranked-choice voting in the state.

“For the entire history of Idaho’s initiative process, ballot measures have required a simple majority of the vote to pass,” Mayville said. “… By ratcheting up the requirement to 60%, Skaug and his allies are attempting to rig the process so that future initiatives will fail even when they are supported by the majority of voters.”

Mayville said if a 60% requirement had been in place, half of Idaho’s majority-supported initiatives would’ve been blocked.