Our Military’s Voting Rights

In Idaho, we love our veterans. The men and women who wear our country’s uniforms, who sacrifice their time, energy, and even their lives to defend our way of life deserve all the gratitude we can give them and more.

Republicans have always done their best to honor and support those who have served. We hold in high regard the values practiced by service members in all branches—honor, loyalty, character, and self-sacrifice. We are proud that so many active-duty military personnel and veterans choose to affiliate with the Republican Party.

There is nothing worse than using military service as a pretext for a radical left-wing agenda. When I learned that proponents of Ranked Choice Voting in Idaho were telling audiences that active-duty service members are not allowed to affiliate with a party — and thus cannot vote in partisan primaries — I was not just disappointed, I was furious.

I went straight to the source to find out if this was true. Guess what? It is not true. According to the Department of Defense guidelines, active-duty service members can indeed vote in partisan primaries, donate to candidates, and express their opinions on political issues. In short, active-duty service members, and veterans alike, have the same voting rights as any other citizen.

This Ranked Choice Voting initiative is so bad that its sponsors feel they must continually lie about it to have any hope of winning in November. For over a year, they have misleadingly called it an “open primaries” initiative, even though it has nothing to do with open primaries. Now, they are not only deceiving military veterans, but they are also exploiting military service to dishonestly promote their bad idea.

I find this absolutely despicable!

It starts at the top, does it not? Consider Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate from Minnesota who served honorably in the National Guard. He nevertheless felt the need to lie about his service, implying that he served in combat when he did not and hiding the fact that he retired early to avoid deployment to Iraq.

I believe that we should tell people the truth and trust them to make their own decisions. Politicians who respect their voters have no need to embellish, exaggerate, or outright lie to them. The Idaho Republican Party thinks that Proposition 1, the Ranked Choice Voting initiative, is a terrible idea for Idaho, and we will continue explaining why. We are not going to lie to you nor will we use something as sacred as military service as a cynical emotional ploy.

Proposition 1 threatens Idaho’s simple, fair, and transparent election system. This is something the men and women who defend our country should be very concerned about.