Coeur d'Alene Press - 12/8/01 - Score one for Idaho's larger counties in their never-ending struggle against the unfair political advantage of their smaller, rural cousins.

The U.S. District Court has ruled unconstitutional a state law which, in effect, gave veto power over ballot initiatives to the smaller counties in Idaho.

The Legislature passed a law in 1997 that required a petition to qualify an initiative for the ballot to have signatures of six percent of the registered voters in each of the state's 44 counties.

In the decision, Judge Lynn Winmill said it would be possible for 75 percent of the state's voters to sign a petition for an initiative, but it would fail to qualify because it didn't represent six percent of the voters in rural counties.

The 1997 law, in effect, gave veto power over potential initiatives to the state's smaller counties. The law kept a number of initiatives off the ballot because sponsors couldn't get the support of rural counties.

The initiative is similar to the allocation of seats in the Legislature. A citizens' commission, created by the Legislature, is attempting to equalize the allocation of seats in the House and Senate, but their first efforts have been frustrated by the type of politics the creation of the commission was expected to avoid.

Agricultural interests continue their domination of the Legislature through a combination of the allocation of Senate and House seats and the state's rigidly protective Right to Farm Act.
The court's recognition of the unfair initiative requirements and its favoritism shown the smaller counties at least calls attention to Idaho's outdated practices of protecting the rural counties in a time when the state is becoming more and more urbanized.