State Representative Brad King says lawmakers may have to address the unintended consequences and confusion created by Senate Bill 54 during the 2016 Regular Session of the State Legislature. SB54 was passed during the last legislative session as a compromise to the “Count My Vote Initiative,” which sought to do away with the caucus-convention system and allow candidates get on a primary election ballot by gathering signatures from registered voters.
Count My Vote organizers said the caucus-convention system places too much power and control with delegates to decide who will be on the ballot. That leaves voters out of the early election process. The SB54 compromise would allow a dual nominating system where candidates could get on the ballot by either method.
The law would also require political parties to open their primary elections to all voters, but Utah’s G.O.P. sued the state over that part of the bill, and U.S. District Court Judge David Nuffer found it to be unconstitutional. He said political parties should be allowed to choose their own candidates.
Representative King said, “As the law is now, you can only gather signatures from the group who can vote in your primary. So if you’re a Republican, all of your signatures have to be registered Republicans, and if you’re a Democrat, they all have to be registered to one of the parties in the state, which could be Democrat, Republican, Green Party, American Party, Libertarian Party.”
One third are excluded
The Democratic Party holds open primaries, while the G.O.P. limits primaries to registered Republican voters. King noted, “So the interesting thing is, due to the part that was struck out, you cannot gather signatures from unaffiliated voters. So a third of the people in the State of Utah are shut out – again. The same reason they struck down the other part because of its unconstitutionality, now makes this unconstitutional by the same standards. That means more than 600,000 unaffiliated Utah voters are left out of the process.
King said Republicans contend the signature method gives challengers an unfair advantage because they can raise money and gather signatures all through the legislative session, while incumbents are precluded from doing so. He calls that notion, “Obviously absurd because there’s nothing you can do to disadvantage an incumbent, except look at his voting record, which if more people would do we could probably get more change around here.”
King reports the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office, which manages elections in the state, has told him there are at least two lawsuits that still have to be resolved before lawmakers can move forward with the issue. He said, “Hopefully they’ll have some resolution- the Supreme Court has to make those decisions. They’re being challenged again now for the new changes and hopefully they’ll make some decision in the next couple of weeks.”
Governor Gary Herbert has expressed his regret over signing SB54 because of the complications that have developed, and Lt. Governor Spencer Cox has warned the Republican Party that it must comply with the law and accept the signature gathering method or face the possibility of losing certification as a Recognized Political Party in the state.
Count My Vote is a nonpartisan organization that set out in 2013 to get an initiative on the ballot which would select political party nominees through a direct vote in a regular primary election. They claimed the current system is deeply flawed, and its exclusionary structure has contributed to a steep decline in voter participation. The group says it gathered more than 115,000 signatures before suspending the effort and accepting the Senate Bill 54 compromise with State Legislators.
Another issue is the method of selecting members of the State School Board. The current system was also struck down as unconstitutional. King said under the system, “People put their name forward and they had a vetting process and then the Governor decided on who was going to be the people who would be on the ballot.” He said the group that made the recommendations to the Governor were appointed by the Governor. King said he would like to see the a return to the old ballot method which was, “A more direct way for the people to be involved.”