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- Gov. Spencer Cox said he doesn't plan to call a special session to overturn SB54, the bill that created the signature-gathering path to the ballot. .
- Sen. Mike Lee and GOP chairman Rob Axson have pushed to repeal the law.
- A recent poll shows only 17% of Utah Republicans oppose signature gathering entirely.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said he has no plans to convene a special session to overturn a law governing ballot access in the state after Sen. Mike Lee used his speech at Saturday's Republican convention to plead with the governor to do so.
Attacks on the law — which allows candidates to collect signatures to appear on a party's primary ballot in addition to campaigning at the party convention — appeared to escalate Saturday with Lee's remarks and a statement from newly reelected GOP Chairman Rob Axson saying he believes there are votes to repeal it in at least one chamber of the Legislature.
But asked if he plans to act on pressure from Lee and others to call lawmakers into a special session on SB54, Cox told KSL.com simply: "No."
Some GOP delegates have long hoped to see SB54 rolled back in favor of just the caucus-convention system. Also, a proposal to kick candidates who gathered signatures out of the Republican Party was brought up, but not considered, during the convention last week.
After his speech, Lee doubled down on his call for state lawmakers to overturn SB54, writing on X that: "No state should dictate to political parties the process by which they nominate candidates. Ever. It ends badly for everyone — especially for conservatives."
Axson told reporters after winning reelection as party chairman that he is "not a fan of the signature path" and wants to build support for overturning SB54 through the Legislature.
"If we build an apparatus that every Utahn and every community feels that there's a value in that, well, they're going to come along with us," he said. "They're going to be supportive of what we're trying to do, and the Legislature is going to listen to that. I believe, again, building is far more productive and worthwhile than taking things apart."
He said he believes there are enough votes to repeal SB54 in the House but not in the Senate — though lawmakers in both chambers don't appear to have plans to address the issues this year. Axson urged party members to be civil in pushing to have SB54 overturned, saying "it can't be a vitriolic conversation."
"It has to be a conversation that's transparent and upfront and collaborative," he said. "If we can show the value of what the Republican Party is doing and trying to do and trying to grow and build additional capacity, we make it a lot easier on these elected officials to take the hard votes of repealing SB54. It's going to take some time. How long or how short that is, I don't know."
While some of the most die-hard supporters of the GOP in Utah want to see party delegates empowered to select who gets to run as a Republican in the general election, the 4,000 or so state delegates are not representative of GOP voters as a whole, and a new report shows they lean slightly more conservative ideologically.
A recent poll commissioned by Count My Vote found that only 17% of Utah Republican voters think the state should do away with signature gathering altogether.
