Now Utah waits.
While supporters of Utahns for Representative Government celebrate submitting what they said is “well over” the needed number of signatures to put a repeal of Proposition 4 on the ballot this fall, it will be weeks before the official tally is finished.
Republicans proposed the ballot initiative to undo Utah’s ban on partisan gerrymandering — an effort not unlike the very initiative it seeks to upend that was approved by Utahns eight years ago. Then, in 2018, voters endorsed creating an independent commission to draw the state’s political boundaries.
But since the redistricting initiative’s narrow passage, it has been the focus of lawsuits and legislative action, as the Republican-led Legislature argues it’s lawmakers who should be drawing Utah’s electoral maps. The ballot initiative campaign is one of the latest attempts to end Proposition 4.
UFRG, along with Republican politicians, activists and influencers, worked for months collecting the endorsements needed from 8% of all registered voters, or 140,748 Utahns, to qualify for the midterm election. For the initiative to be successful, they also needed to reach that threshold in 26 of Utah’s 29 senate districts.
And while Friday’s tally reported by the lieutenant governor’s office showed the UFRG staring down a more than 50,000-signature deficit, supporters rallied over the weekend, delivering boxes of signature packets to county clerks ahead of Sunday’s 5 p.m. deadline.
Supporters have 30 days from the signing of the first signature in that packet to submit it to a county clerk, meaning packets submitted Sunday could include endorsement from as early as mid-January.
Read Jeff Parrott's 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.