Ranked Choice Voting Takes Center Stage at Twin Falls & Jerome Counties’ Republican Central Committee Meetings

Twin Falls County Central Committee Meeting, July 10, 2024

By Leslie Wolff, Precinct Committeeman Twin Falls#14

How I Became a Precinct Committeeman

Since this is my first report, let me take a few minutes to introduce myself. Eight years ago, my husband and I escaped California and sought refuge in the red state of Idaho… or so we thought. After a while I started seeing things happening in government that did not sit well with me. I joined the Southern Idaho Republican Women’s (SIRW) group hoping to get more involved. As I attended their meetings, I began wondering if I was even a Republican because my views definitely did not align with most of the women. Fortunately, I had been hearing Idaho GOP Chairwoman Dorothy Moon on the radio and liked what she had to say. When I heard she was going to speak at the Magic Valley Republican Women (MVRW) group in Buhl, I took time off work and attended that luncheon. I was amazed at how different the MVRW members were compared to the SIRW. I felt I had finally found my people and I don’t think I have missed a meeting since.

At that meeting, Dorothy Moon and Sen. Glenneda Zuiderveld spoke about precinct committeemen. I thought I would like to get involved, so I asked about my PC and was told he was liberty-minded and one of the good ones. I decided I needed to get involved in some other way. But then in December, I finally had the opportunity to meet Josh Kohl and found out he moved and left our precinct, so I put my hat in the ring. I have been
supporting MVLA and the “Fab Four” (my nicknames for Josh, David, Clint and Glenneda) ever since.

Even though Gem State Conservatives bankrolled my opponent, I was victorious with 78% of the vote in the May primary. Since then, I attended the IDGOP convention as a guest, as none of the liberty-minded PCs were chosen as delegates. I joined in the counter-protest at the Capital when Reclaim Idaho turned in their petition signatures to the Secretary of State. I have also attended a few Ranked Choice Voting meetings as I am committed to do everything possible to defeat Ranked Choice Voting.

Read MVLA’s latest articles on Ranked Choice Voting here.

Yours truly pointed out that the minutes of the last meeting had seventy (70) errors ranging from misspelled names, punctuation issues and incorrect information. Even with all of the issues, the approved. Secretary Julie Koyle thanked me for pointing out her errors, and that in all the time she has been secretary, no one has ever pointed out an issue.

Connie Smith, Twin Falls#1 and another Liberty PC, made a motion to have the attendance added to the minutes every month. The Secretary offered to attach her roll call sheet to the email when the minutes are distributed to the members. The majority of the members didn’t understand why we wanted it, so they had no problem with it. A vote was taken, and the motion was passed. I then pointed out that according to the TFCRCC bylaws, article 2, section 5, subsection B, the Secretary
shall post the roll call records on the TFCRCC website. The Secretary said she would start getting that done. I will continue to push on this issue until it is reliably posted every month so voters can access that information and see if their PC is regularly attending meetings and representing them.

Hot Topic of the Night: Ranked Choice Voting

Josh Kohl, Twin Falls#8, presented a resolution to the Central Committee regarding the Reclaim Idaho initiative to “open primaries” and that would add Ranked Choice Voting to our election system. Grant Loebs, Twin Falls County Prosecuting Attorney, explained the initiative and how it would affect our elections. Somehow, through many amendments, an amended resolution was passed. It was the most discussion I have seen them have since I started just going to the meetings years ago. Way to go Josh!

The Central Committee did take a vote and unanimously rejected Top 4 Primaries/Jungle Primaries and Ranked Choice Voting. It has been brought to my attention that at least one current PC, Terry McCurdy
from Precinct TF#12, did sign the initiative petition. Terry did not attend the meeting, so he was not available to be asked why. If you live in TF#12, you might want to reach out to your PC and let him know that you are completely against RCV.

The Committee then voted to give only $10,000 to fight RCV, when $30,000 had been requested by Josh. It was pointed out to us liberty-minded PCs that they worked hard to raise the money that is in the bank
and they don’t want to use it all. We pointed out that if RCV passes, the Republican party as we know it would be gone. The Committee also voted to start a subcommittee to start fighting RCV and how to best use the $10k allotted to the cause. Anyone interested in being on the subcommittee signed up. Most of the Liberty PCs signed up, along with a few others. Out of that sign-up sheet, only two Liberty PCs were chosen
to be part of the subcommittee. Iam glad to see the “powers that be” in the Committee are so eager to get started fighting RCV and taking
this seriously.

Water Curtailment

Rick Pearson proceeded with what “really” happened during the East Idaho water curtailment in June. I found it interesting, but you know what they say, there is always three sides to every story. I have no reason to not trust what was said, but I have learned the hard way to not believe everything I’m told until verified. Regardless, this infighting is not good for Idahoans and we need to be careful when accepting “help” from the government, as it usually has strings attached.

Chairman Antics

When Rick was done with his presentation, Liberty PC Adrian Arp (Filer#1) presented more information on the subject, as he had requested time to be on the agenda. Tom Wangeman, Committee Chair, refused to allow Adrian to speak because the meeting had already gone two hours. Adrian stood his ground and Tom continued to argue with him. Ultimately, Adrian was allowed to speak for a few minutes. During Adrian’s presentation, several members got up and walked out, just further evidence that there is no respect for the Liberty PCs.

Please attend the next meeting: Regular meetings are held the first Wednesday of every month. The next meeting will be Wednesday, September 11th. 6:30 pm in the Planning & Zoning room at the Twin Falls County West building on 630 Addison Avenue West.

Jerome County Central Committee Meeting, August 15, 2024

By Kally Schiffler

First, I want to give a big shout out to all the concerned citizens who attended the Jerome County Republican Central Committee meeting. It’s a beautiful thing when a JCRCC meeting is packed full of involved citizens. The community showed up!!!

It was very apparent that the Chair of the JCRCC, Rob Williams, was out of touch with most of the attendees. At one point, Rob stood up and threatened to call the police on the crowd for clapping for Dorothy Moon, Chairwoman of the Idaho Republican Party. He also shamed attendees because he did not like their involvement. Some attendees, and even members of the Committee, tried to get Rob to speak into the microphone because no one could hear him. Rob disrespectfully told attendees that the only important people that needed to hear what had to say was his Committee. He needs reminding that it is the attendees whom he represents. If he is not up to that position, maybe he should consider resigning and let someone who cares about the people represent them.

Ranked Choice Voting Debated

Ranked Choice Voting supporter Hyrum Erickson was brought in by the Chair and other Committee members, who do not uphold the Republican platform against RCV. How is this acceptable when our state Republican Party chose not to support RCV? Some among this Committee have the audacity to deliberately go against the Idaho Republican platform, this is unacceptable behavior. Dorothy Moon was asked to educate the people as to why the Republican party is against RCV and why we should VOTE NO ON PROP 1 in November. Hyrum used most of his allotted time to talk about open primaries while Dorothy explained very clearly the pitfalls of RCV and how the votes are counted. When it was time for rebuttal comments, Hyrum admitted he had no rebuttal against Dorothy’s explanations. Hyrum said the cost to upgrade the new Dominion election machines would be close to $1 million dollars. Dorothy corrected that amount to closer to $40 million of our tax dollars — dollars that undoubtedly could be used for a better purpose or not taken from taxpayers in the first place.

Bella Schiffler (Rim Rock Precinct Committeeman) moved to add public comment to the agenda and to the bylaws. Chairman Williams shot her down for the third time during the evening when she spoke. He is out-of-touch with his own Committee and the people he represents.

As a whole, our community needs new leadership. Leadership that will lead with excellence and respect. Leadership that:

• Grows the Republican party and welcomes public involvement.
• Is not Republican in name only (RINOs).
• Keeps the public informed, educated and engaged.
• Will target the youth and get our future leaders educated as to why they should care, vote, and fight for America.
• Will build relationships with the community, with elected officials and promote peaceful and effective political activism.

We need leadership with solutions. If you are reading this and you believe in the Idaho Republican platform and you feel you have solutions, please consider running to be your precinct’s committeeman or any other elected position next election. We need people who will lead with courage, speak God’s truth and create opportunity for positive change and inspire others to do the same.

Please attend the next meeting: Regular meetings are held the third Thursday of every month at 7pm at El Sombrero Restuarant, 143 West Main St. in Jerome. The next meeting will be September 19.