That simmering rage started to boil over on Thursday morning after his quest to cast doubt on the signatures Cox used to qualify for the ballot suffered a setback at the hands of Utah’s State Records Committee. Lyman had spent weeks urging his followers to show up en masse to the meeting.
When it became clear the committee was poised to reject Lyman’s request to access the signature packets for another candidate, the pro-Lyman crowd became agitated. One man angrily stormed out, yelling about a “banana republic.” At one point before the final vote, they became so disruptive that some were ushered out of the room.
After the committee voted against Lyman, armed officers stood between the crowd and committee members as the angered observers filed out of the room.
“This has the aroma of mendacity,” one participant shouted as he left.
Lyman disagreed with the characterization that his supporters had become heated in the meeting.
“I saw people having some frustration. I would not call that heated. You can infer what you want, but no, I don’t believe that was a heated hearing at all,” Lyman said Thursday afternoon.
Lyman’s campaign hoped to piggyback on another open records request seeking access to the signatures state Sen. Don Ipson’s reelection campaign submitted to qualify for the primary ballot. A large number of Ipson’s signatures were disqualified, causing him to fall short of securing a spot on the ballot that way. Ipson did secure enough support from Republican delegates to qualify for the primary, where he defeated former state Rep. Chad Bennion.
The theory, according to Lyman’s camp, is that since Ipson and Cox used the same signature-gathering company and those signatures were verified in two different locations - Ipson’s in Washington County while Cox’s went to the Davis County Clerk - it’s possible that some signatures that were disqualified for Ipson were mistakenly credited to Cox.
Read the full story at sltrib.com.
This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aims to inform readers across the state.