The Idaho Supreme Court is once again being asked to settle a dispute over how a ballot initiative to restore abortion rights in the state will be presented to voters.
Idahoans United for Women and Families, which got Proposition 1 on the ballot, said in a new lawsuit filed Wednesday that the state attorney general and secretary of state are potentially misleading voters.
The group points to the very bubbles voters will fill in to decide if they want Prop 1 to pass or fail.
State officials’ proposed ballot language attempts to summarize what a yes or no vote would change, despite Idaho law saying these statements must be clear and concise.
These are the statements submitted to county clerks by the Idaho Secretary of State:
- “A yes vote would create reproductive rights, including a right to abortion before a fetus’s ability to survive and after a fetus’s ability to survive in cases of a medical emergency and provide liability protections for healthcare providers.”
- “A no vote would make no changes to Idaho’s current law, which protects the life of the unborn while allowing abortion in reported cases of rape or incest, or when necessary to protect the life of the mother.”
In its lawsuit, Idahoans United said state officials sent over a copy of the language Aug. 24 at 4:57 p.m., days after they had sent the file to be printed in a voter pamphlet.
The secretary of state’s office said ballot language must be finalized by Sept. 11 in order to print them in time for military and overseas voters to receive them.
“To insert argumentative, confusing Yes/No Statements into the ballot days before they must be finalized is frivolous and appears to be in bad faith,” the lawsuit said.
Idahoans United said voters will have a description of how Prop 1 would change state law printed directly above where they will select yes or no on the question, also known as the short ballot title.
The group wants the choices to be like past initiatives, which simply said whether their vote would change or keep existing law the same.
The current short ballot title was hammered out after the Idaho Supreme Court ordered Attorney General Raúl Labrador to rewrite it last year, saying it didn’t fully describe the initiative’s potential effects.
Labrador’s office issued a statement Wednesday standing by their choice of language: “Idaho voters deserve a straightforward explanation of what their vote will do.”
The state supreme court will choose whether to take up the case soon.
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