Utah GOP fumbling their pro-gerrymandering ballot measure amid fraud claims, confusion

Utah Republicans’ plan to repeal the state’s gerrymandering ban in order to grab another congressional seat isn’t going as well as they hoped — despite Donald Trump Jr.’s best efforts to help recruit workers for a MAGA political firm that turned in fraudulent signatures and reportedly tricked voters into signing their petition. 

With a Sunday deadline looming, the campaign still needs to make up thousands of signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot. 

Utah’s 2021 map split up Salt Lake City – the state’s liberal power base – across the state’s four congressional districts, all of which are currently held by Republicans. And the GOP wants to keep it that way. 

But a judge struck down the map last year and gave the legislature yet another attempt to draw a compliant map. After they failed to do that, she selected one proposed by the pro-voting plaintiff.  

The judge rejected the GOP maps on grounds that they violated the landmark constitutional amendment Utah voters passed in 2018 restricting partisan gerrymandering. The Utah Supreme Court upheld the decision, clearing the way for Democrats to possibly flip one of Utah’s congressional districts in 2026. 
Ever since, Republicans have remained fixated on getting around the ruling. They’re fighting it in state court, attempting to convince the Utah Supreme Court to pause the court-ordered map and use the 2021 map for this year’s elections. They’re also challenging the court-ordered map in federal court, arguing the state court judge did not have the authority to select an alternate map.

The GOP-controlled legislature has also pushed back congressional candidate filing deadlines, expanded the state supreme court and even passed a state law saying that, going forward, only the Utah Supreme Court can hear redistricting cases.

And, of course, they’re also hellbent on repealing Proposition 4, the constitutional amendment voters approved in 2018 that restricted partisan gerrymandering in the first place. Republicans are collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to repeal the anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment. But with signatures due tomorrow, they don’t appear to be on track to turn in the minimum required number.

In November, the GOP group Utahns for Representative Government took money it received from the MAGA-aligned dark money group Securing American Greatness and paid $4.3 million to Patriot Grassroots to conduct signature gathering, according to records filed with the state. 

Patriot Grassroots appears to be raking in money from Trump’s national redistricting fight. The group was also paid $2.9 million to thwart signature gathering efforts in Missouri. That project also failed: Missouri voters successfully turned in more than 300,000 signatures to put their own state’s GOP gerrymander to a statewide referendum vote.

In Utah, Republicans have put their best guys on the case – including Patriot Grassroots, the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action group and election denier all-star Scott Presler – but they seem to be struggling to convince at least 140,000 voters to sign a petition for a statewide vote to repeal Proposition 4.

A Utah county clerk said hundreds of signatures have been flagged as fraudulent – his office rejected more than 90% of the signatures in some of the packets that had been submitted. The Utah Republican Party chair said Patriot Grassroots’ contract has been terminated. 

As of Tuesday, the GOP’s repeal campaign had collected 88,948 signatures, a state list showed. 

Republicans must also meet a minimum signature threshold in at least 26 out of 29 state senate districts. By Tuesday, they had met that requirement in just three districts, according to Utah independent journalist Bryan Schott, who has closely tracked the petition’s progress. 

Adding to the GOP’s woes, hundreds of Utahns have removed their signatures from the petition as opponents of the repeal have reached out to voters who may have been misled into signing it.

Utah’s redistricting legal battles won’t be resolved soon. But, for now, Utah Republicans are asking both the state’s Supreme Court and a federal district court to decide by Feb. 23 which map is in effect for the 2026 election. 

A three-judge panel is set to take up the federal case Feb. 18. They will hear arguments on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction to block the court-ordered map — and instead use the 2021 map — for the 2026 midterms.