SALT LAKE CITY — Over the past two months, volunteers and organizers from across the state have been collecting signatures to repeal Proposition 4, which established an independent redistricting commission to draw Utah’s congressional district lines.
On Monday, organizers behind the repeal effort said they have enough signatures to put the question in front of voters on the ballot in November.
"We have submitted well over 200,000,” said Robert Axson, chair of the Utah Republican Party and founder of Utahns for Representative Government, pushing the initiative to repeal Proposition 4. “We're very comfortable in the position that we are at, not just meeting but far exceeding those requirements that we have to make sure that this is on the ballot."
They need at least 140,000 signatures — including 8 percent of registered voters in at least 26 out of 29 senate districts. On Sunday, they submitted the last signature packet, trying to get this question in front of voters on the ballot. As of 9 a.m. on Friday, the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office posted on its website that county clerks had verified 88,948 signatures so far.
"When Prop. 4 was initially proposed to the people of Utah, there was a question and it was aspirational,” Axson explained about why there is a push to repeal the current way maps are drawn. “What we’ve seen over the last six years is what was decided on in a small, razor-thin margin. What was decided has not been implemented the way that people thought it would."
On Monday morning, many voters got a text message, paid for by the Republican National Committee, warning people about giving their petition signature information to out-of-state groups with outside money.
"Don’t be confused, don’t listen to the angry outside groups, don’t listen to activists. Listen to and trust yourself,” Axson said about why they authorized the message. “Listen to and trust your fellow Utahns."
"We were very surprised by that. We think it’s not very responsible to put that out as we feel like it's maybe a scare tactic, to make people uncomfortable with removing their signatures,” said Sarah McConkie, a co-founder of Brave Utahns Rapid Response Network (BURRN).
McConkie said she feels like that was a warning about her group. She and two of her friends started BURRN — a grassroots group with small donations coming in. She said they put up posters asking people to decline to sign, went to events where volunteers were gathering signatures to educate people about Prop. 4. Now, they are helping people get their names removed from the petition who don’t want them or say they never signed but see their names now.
"If you go through our organization, we have on our website the form you need to print and the address you need to mail it to based on the county you’re registered in, to remove your signature,” said McConkie. “If you go that route, that will be in an envelope. It will go to the county clerk's office.”
She said she believes the initiative is a “distraction” from other issues.
"Gerrymandering is bad. When you draw voting maps, I believe that they should be drawn to reflect the people in the state," she said.
Axson said the goal of all of this is to just let people make the final choice about who should represent them.
"The people of Utah want a say. Whether they're for or against what we're doing, they want to be the ones to make that decision, and I’m excited to give it to them," he said.
According to state law, county clerks have 21 days to verify signatures and send those names to the Lt. Governor’s office to post on their website. After a person’s name is posted, they have 45 days to notify their county clerk if they want to remove it. So, it could take about 2 months to know for sure if repealing Prop 4 goes in front of voters or not, this November.
