The League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government’s long-running lawsuit against the lived “rent free” in some lawmakers’ minds throughout the session. To the frustration of Republican leadership, the Utah Supreme Court and a panel of federal judges ruled in favor of the new congressional map, creating a more competitive Salt Lake County-centric district that Democrats have rushed to run in. So far, it appears the map will be here for the upcoming mid-term elections.
Rep. Jefferson Burton introduced a bill restricting vote-by-mail in Utah. The proposal would mail you a ballot but require you to return it in-person and show ID. It faced pushback over impacts to rural Utah. The bill passed the House and failed to pass the Senate. Then it was revived as a study by Utah Valley University to look at “security” for in-person voting vs. mail-in voting.
Rep. Cory Maloy’s bill to require proof of citizenship to vote passed.
Sen. John Johnson passed a bill impacting the rules by which a person’s voter record can be classified as “private” under Utah law, which will now make some private voter records public.
A lot of bills were introduced tweaking the signature-gathering process for citizen initiatives and referendums. Most did not even get hearings in the legislature. What did pass included new requirements and disclosures for signature-gatherers and you, the one being asked to sign a petition. In a change implemented in the final hour of the legislative session, an amendment was added into a bill to block groups like Better Boundaries from paying for postage for people to fill out forms to remove their signature from the Utah GOP's citizen ballot initiative to repeal Prop. 4.
Rep. Andrew Stoddard’s bill to split up the Electoral College votes in Utah from “winner takes all” to a proportion of the vote got a hearing, but never made it out of committee. A bill he proposed to change thresholds in initiatives was held up in a committee.
Rep. Lisa Shepherd proposed a bill that appeared to be aimed at the legislature’s lone third-party member, Sen. Emily Buss who is with the Forward Party. It would require an office vacancy be filled by a political party when the prior officeholder was last elected, regardless of whether they switched parties. The bill did not pass. A separate bill to call for a special election legislative vacancies failed to pass.
Rep. Ryan Wilcox’s bill to make Election Day a holiday in Utah failed in a House vote.
Rep. Sahara Hayes proposed a bill to require social media and influencer marketing on elections to be labeled as “paid political advertising.” It did not pass.
Rep. Rosalba Dominguez’s bill to demand that political ads generated with AI be labeled was introduced, but held in a House committee meaning it wasn’t advancing.
