Idaho Democrats are concerned a new advertising campaign by the Idaho Secretary of State's Office may mislead voters about the March 8 presidential primary.
The primary is only open to voters affiliated with the Idaho Republican Party and the Constitution Party of Idaho. Idaho Democrats won't weigh in on their party's nominee until March 22, at county caucus meetings.
The Secretary of State's Office began advertising the March 8 primary last week. It rented 22 billboard locations around the state, at a cost of about $20,000.
The bulk of the advertisement shows the IdahoVotes.gov website logo and address. “Presidential Primary March 8” is printed across the bottom.
“When you're driving down the highway at 80 miles an hour, the thing you see is the Idaho Votes logo,” said Secretary of State Lawerence Denney. “When this was brought to me, I said whatever we do, we can't be partisan – and I don't think it is.”
The IdahoVotes.gov website (not to be confused with the private IdahoVotes.com or IdahoVotes.org websites) provides more detailed information about the Republican and Constitution Party primaries, as well as the Democratic caucus meetings.
“There's too much information to put on a billboard, so we direct them to the website,” Denney said.
The billboard advertisements could have included a reference to the March 22 Democratic caucuses, he said, but “we didn't think of it.”
Idaho Democratic Party Chairman Bert Marley has asked that the billboards be modified, both to include a reference to the March 22 caucuses and to clarify that the March 8 primary is only for Republicans and Constitution Party members.
“They need to make it clear, or there's a good chance county clerks will be dealing with a lot of frustrated people,” said IDP spokesman Dean Ferguson.
Denney may have intended the advertisement to be non-partisan, he said, but the result didn't achieve that goal.
“It's not too late to change the result,” Ferguson said.
