Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
- Utah's redistricting debate intensifies as lawmakers and courts clash over who can draw maps.
- Most respondents in a recent poll prefer that lawmakers work with a commission to draw congressional boundaries.
- GOP lawmakers consider a constitutional amendment to clarify power over ballot initiatives.
SALT LAKE CITY — Who should have the power to divide Utah into voting districts?
It's a question Utah residents, judges, lawyers and state lawmakers have been grappling with for years. Republicans in the Legislature have argued they have sole constitutional authority to draw district boundaries.
Meanwhile, the Utah Supreme Court found lawmakers overreached when they changed Proposition 4, a 2018 ballot initiative that established nonpartisan guidelines for map-drawing and an independent commission to suggest new congressional maps to the Legislature.
The issue is far from settled, even after 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson tossed a map drawn by the Legislature in favor of one submitted by plaintiffs who have accused GOP lawmakers of gerrymandering. That map would create a district based in northern Salt Lake County which would lean Democratic. Utah's four congressional seats are currently all held by Republicans.
The Legislature met in a special session Tuesday evening to move the filing deadline for congressional candidates back to March to give time for their pending appeal of Gibson's ruling to make its way through the courts.
Voters want a commission to be involved
Top Republicans in the Legislature have long balked at having a commission, or any other outside group, draw political boundaries. Not only is it their constitutional duty, they argue, but they say it's what the voters want.
House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, shared a poll on social media to that effect over the weekend, writing that it shows "Utahns overwhelmingly want their elected representatives — not the courts — leading the redistricting process."
It's true that the poll, commissioned by the conservative-leaning Sutherland Institute, shows that only 8% of voters want judges to select maps, but the results are more nuanced than that. Pollsters asked respondents who should decide congressional district boundaries and gave seven different options: judicial appointees, local volunteers, elected-official appointees, judges, county-level elected officials, state-level elected officials and bodies elected by the people.
The last three answers combined received 71% of responses, while none of the others got more than 10%.
Although the question didn't ask directly about the Legislature or about Proposition 4, it was still a good way to get honest responses from voters without triggering partisan responses, said Leah Murray, the director of Weber State University's Walker Institute of Politics and Public Service.
"I think that saying 'the Legislature' or saying a specific judge makes it very specific to this conversation that we are having (about Proposition 4)," she told KSL. "Anyone paying attention to politics would get a cue from 'Legislature' or 'Judge Gibson,' and the way they've written it makes it loose enough that maybe you don't get a partisan cue."
The poll did ask a separate question about the Legislature specifically, which found that 60% of respondents want lawmakers to have some role in drawing political boundaries. But of those who want the Legislature involved, 45% said lawmakers should pick a final map from a set of maps approved by a commission, 40% said lawmakers should have an advisory commission for drawing maps and only 15% said the Legislature should have sole responsibility.
That means only 9% want the Legislature to draw maps on its own, only slightly higher than those who want a judge to pick the maps.
"I think the overall takeaway is voters want the people making the decisions to be accountable to them," said Derek Monson, Sutherland Institute's chief growth officer. "But ... 91% of voters want a commission involved in some fashion. Some want it stronger, some want it more advisory. But the idea that they just want the Legislature doing it without anything — that doesn't get any more support than judges."
What does the Constitution say?
When it comes to the Utah Constitution, lawmakers point to Article IX, Section 1, which states: "No later than the annual general session next following the Legislature's receipt of the results of an enumeration made by the authority of the United States, the Legislature shall divide the state into congressional, legislative, and other districts accordingly."
Proposition 4, which was narrowly approved by voters in 2018, created an independent redistricting commission to create maps to recommend to the Legislature, which needed to follow several criteria including minimizing the splitting of municipalities and a ban on drawing maps to favor one political party over another. The Legislature could choose to ignore the maps recommended by the commission, but they would need to provide a written explanation as to why they believe their preferred map better followed the standards of Proposition 4.
While the proposition added guardrails to how lawmakers can divide the state's districts, it didn't ultimately take away their power to adopt redistricting maps — something Supreme Court Associate Justice Paige Petersen noted in her 2024 opinion in which the court unanimously found lawmakers had overreached by changing Proposition 4 after it was enacted by a vote of the people.
"Accordingly, under Proposition 4, the Legislature retained the ultimate responsibility for 'divid(ing) the state into congressional, legislative and other districts,'" Petersen wrote, quoting from the Constitution. "So, to establish that Proposition 4 violated the Utah Constitution, a party would have to show that Article IX, Section 1 does more than grant the Legislature authority to enact legislation setting congressional boundaries.
"They would have to show that the provision prohibits the people from using their own legislative power to, for example, enact statutory standards for the redistricting process, or establish an independent commission to create proposed maps that the Legislature is required to consider."
What's next?
Whatever comes of the ongoing legal fight, GOP lawmakers and the Utah Republican Party are looking at other ways to push back. The Utah Legislature is looking to propose a constitutional amendment during the next legislative session to clarify their power to override citizen ballot initiatives, and a group backed by the state Republican Party is gathering signatures for a ballot initiative to repeal Proposition 4 altogether.
That group, Utahns for Representative Government, has received a large cash infusion from a so-called dark money group with ties to President Donald Trump's fundraising operation.
Securing American Greatness, Inc., donated $4.35 million to Utahns for Representative Government between Oct. 29 and Nov. 26, according to financial disclosures.
Rob Axson, the chairman of the state GOP and chairman of Utahns for Representative Government, said he and others in Utah appreciate the support. But as Trump has encouraged other states like Texas and Indiana to take the unusual step of redrawing maps in the middle of the decade in order to boost Republicans' odds of retaining control of the House in next year's midterms, Axson said the support for the Utah GOP is separate from those efforts.
"This is unilateral action from courts to undermine, in my opinion, the appropriate process of legislative drafting of maps," Axson told KSL last week. "I would say the support that we receive from folks in Utah and elsewhere, while it certainly has relevance for the congressional maps, the support is more focused on representative form of government."
