BOISE, Idaho — Legislation that will make it more difficult to get a voter initiative on the Idaho ballot will get a hearing.
The Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday approved the hearing requested by Republican Sen. Scott Grow.
Grow says the current system allows urban counties to have too much sway in voter initiatives and the proposed legislation will give rural counties a bigger voice.
The legislation will increase from 6 percent to 10 percent the number of registered voters that must sign petitions for a voter initiative to appear on a ballot.
The number of districts will also increase from 18 to 32 of Idaho's 35 districts and the time to gather those signatures will be cut from 18 months down to six months.
Sen. Michelle Stennett (D-Ketchum) is opposed to the bill, saying that it is not enough time to collect signatures, the new rules put a burden on counties and that it is ultimately voter suppression.
"Going around to a very big district that has a more dispersed population is much harder to go and get signatures from and of course when you're in a denser Ada County, it's easier to gather signatures," Stennett said. "So the rigor that it's requiring to be able to go to vast amounts of areas into very rural areas to gather signatures in a much reduced period of time really is a suppression."
Grow reiterated that this is not in response to Medicaid expansion passing and said he sits on the Joint Finance and Appropriations Committee that just voted 20-0 to fund Medicaid expansion.
"Definitely, it's enough time. we've studied the initiative process all around the U.S," Grow said. "First, 24 states don't even allow them and those that do they range from 180 days or 6 months to a year-and-a-half and in today's digital world if they can't do it in 180 days, I don't think that's a problem at all."