- Utah lawmakers made a late-night change to an election bill targeting signature removals.
- The change prohibits prepaid postage for signature removal requests, likely impacting Better Boundaries' efforts to stop the initiative to repeal Prop 4.
- The bill passed both chambers late Friday and was signed by the governor Saturday morning.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah lawmakers introduced a late-night change to an election bill apparently geared toward slowing the removal of signatures from a ballot initiative that would repeal Proposition 4. The governor quickly signed it into law on Saturday morning.
HB242, sponsored by Rep. Karen Peterson, R-Clinton, was adjusted late Friday on the final night of the legislative session to prohibit voters from requesting their signatures be removed from an initiative or referendum if they use prepaid postage to do so.
This comes as Better Boundaries — the nonprofit behind Utah's anti-gerrymandering law known as Proposition 4 — has sent out thousands of letters to petition signers with prepaid and partially filled-out forms to request county clerks to remove their signatures.
Sen. Brady Brammer, R-Highland, introduced the change with less than 90 minutes before the session ended. Democrats in the Senate objected, with one saying it was a blatant attempt to meddle in the Proposition 4 repeal fight.
"I just want to make sure people realize that what this is doing is directly impacting the effort to overturn Prop 4 right now, so I want to put that on the record," said Sen. Nate Blouin, D-Millcreek.
The Republican group organizing the repeal effort is currently suing state election leaders, arguing that Better Boundaries is indirectly paying voters to remove their names.
Both the House of Representatives and the Senate approved the updated HB242 late Friday. Since Gov. Spencer Cox signed it into law, it goes into effect immediately. Voters are now prohibited from submitting a signature removal statement using prepaid postage, unless it's postmarked before Saturday.
Elizabeth Rasmussen, the executive director of Better Boundaries, said lawmakers had "once again changed the rules for their own benefit midway through the process at the expense of everyday Utahns."
"Utah voters made their voice clear in 2018 when they created the independent redistricting commission. Fair maps should not be drawn by politicians with a stake in the outcome," she told KSL in a statement. "We remain focused on helping those tricked or misled to remove their signatures."
Utahns for Representative Government, the group behind the Republican-led repeal initiative, celebrated the law in a social media post Saturday, thanking lawmakers and the governor for ending what it called "deceptive practices."
"We strongly believe that the law already deems these deceptive practices as unlawful," Rob Axson, the head of the group and chairman of the Utah Republican Party, told KSL in a statement. "This reiteration by Utah's elected officials makes clear: Manufactured confusion by biased organizations intimidating citizens has no place in Utah!"
Organizers of the initiative to repeal Utah's anti-gerrymandering law have cleared the statewide threshold for signatures, but opponents still have several weeks to convince signers to remove their names. If the signatures hold, voters would be asked in November whether they want to repeal Proposition 4.
Getting the repeal of Proposition 4 on the ballot would be the latest step in a yearslong battle over Utah's congressional maps, dating back to the narrow passage of Proposition 4 by voters in 2018. That initiative created an independent commission to recommend new political boundaries to lawmakers every 10 years while setting standards to avoid gerrymandering by not favoring one political party over another.
After the GOP-controlled Legislature weakened the commission and chose maps of its own, voter groups sued, leading 3rd District Judge Dianne Gibson to throw out Utah's congressional map. Utah lawmakers drew another one, but the judge rejected it, saying it unfairly favored Republicans. In November, Gibson then adopted a new map — which was submitted by plaintiffs — which created a Democratic-leaning district in Salt Lake County.
The effort to repeal Proposition 4 through initiative has already raised tensions, as some signature gatherers have reported being assaulted and harassed, and some voters have complained about misleading messages given by signature gatherers.
