As noted earlier, a federal court in Idaho ruled that the lawsuit filed by the Republican Party, over whether the party has a right to a close its primary to non-Republicans, cannot proceed without evidence that non-Republicans have been voting in Republican Party primaries. The party now says it will commission field research to gather evidence on what types of people voted in its May 2008 primary. Both sides in the lawsuit seem to agree that the lawsuit will take quite a while to resolve, and that the case will not be decided in time to alter the May 2010 primary.

Idaho is one of the 21 states in which the voter registration form does not ask people which party, if any, they are joining. Thus, on primary day, any voter in Idaho is free to decide which party’s primary to vote in.