My name is Melanie Folwell. I'm a lifelong Idahoan and I lead Idahoans United for Women and Families, the statewide grassroots nonpartisan group who put Prop One on your ballot.
For more than four years, Idaho politicians have done exactly that. Since August of 2022, their abortion ban has put the government between a woman and her doctor. Women have been flown out of state in the middle of emergencies. Families have crossed state lines on the worst day of their lives. Doctors have packed up and left.
Nobody put that on a ballot. Nobody asked us.
So the people of Idaho did what free people do. We stopped waiting for permission.
More than 110,000 of you signed your names, the most signatures for any qualified ballot initiative in Idaho history. Republicans, Democrats, independents. Nearly 1,300 volunteers, from everywhere from Moscow to Meridian…from Caldwell to Chubbuck…from Twin Falls to Tetonia gathered signatures.
And now Prop One is on the ballot. The Reproductive Freedom and Privacy Act. It restores Idaho to the standard of abortion access we had for 50 years. It protects contraception and IVF. And it puts private medical decisions back where they belong: with a woman, her family and her doctor. Not a politician. Not a legislature. Not an attorney general.
But a ballot measure does not pass because it's right. It passes because we vote. So I have two jobs for you today. Just two.
Job one: vote early.
Early voting opens here in Ada County and next door in Canyon in less than 48 hours, onMonday, October 19. Do not wait. I NEED you to vote this week. Do not wait for the perfect day. Life happens. Kids get sick. Cars break down. A vote you cast early is a vote nothing can get in the way of.
And your job when you are in front of that ballot? Start at the back, pick out your favorite gun, and then VOTE YES ON ONE.
Say it with me: YES ON ONE. YES ON ONE.
Job two. And this is the one that wins it.
Once you've voted, your vote is in the bank. Then we need your voice and your legs and your hands that knock on doors and text friends.
Because there are thousands of Idahoans who are with us and who will not vote unless somebody shows up at their door. A neighbor. A real person. You.
That is what Get Out the Vote means. One shift. A few hours. We train you, we pair you with a partner, and you remind people who already agree with us to turn in their ballots.
And here is why it matters how big we win. The Idaho Republican Party has already passed a resolution calling on the Legislature to repeal Prop One if you pass it. Before a single vote has been counted.
So we don't just win. We win so big they wouldn't dare.
Our volunteers are in the crowd right over there with big old QR code. Sign up for a shift before you leave today. Not tomorrow. Today.
Vote early. Take a shift. Bring a friend.
And on November 3, the people of Idaho get the last word. The people of Idaho get to show the whole NATION that even in a place like Idaho, you cannot…you will not…overreach into our most private lives, our families, our bodies, our lives, our kitchen tables WITHOUT THE PEOPLE..PUSHING..BACK. And how do we do that? Voting YES ON ONE.
Thank you!