Utah GOP passes 11th hour law to protect its pro-gerrymander ballot measure

In an eleventh-hour maneuver, Utah Republicans closed out the state legislative session by passing a measure aimed at making it more difficult for voters to remove their signatures from a petition supporting a ballot initiative to legalize partisan gerrymanders. 

Gov. Spencer Cox (R) then signed it into law just hours later. The law went into effect immediately.

The new rules invalidate signature removals submitted using prepaid postage, which, in practice, means that Utahns who changed their mind about the ballot initiative will now have to pay for postage to remove their signatures.  

The Utah GOP has been hellbent on repealing the state’s current ban on partisan gerrymandering ever since courts struck down its previous congressional map for violating the law and selected a map proposed by pro-voting plaintiffs. Under that new map, Democrats will likely flip one of the state’s four congressional districts in November.

Republicans now want voters to repeal the ban in November, but their efforts to put the measure on the ballot are being challenged by a pro-voting campaign that is helping Utahns remove their signatures from the petition. Part of that campaign has involved giving voters envelopes with prepaid postage. 

Republicans retaliated against the campaign Friday in a late-night legislative play, racing to pass a bill that invalidated those signature removals. 

The provision about invalidating signatures was reportedly added to the bill around 11 p.m., shortly before the legislature gaveled out. Cox signed it the next day.

Utahns for Representative Government, the GOP group pushing for the repeal, is also suing Better Boundaries, the group opposing the measure, alleging that it violated state law by sending letters with prepaid postage to help Utahns remove their signatures.

The Utah GOP has cleared the signature requirements needed to qualify its measure for the ballot, logging more than 165,000 signatures statewide, as well as submitting enough signatures in 26 out of 29 state senate districts.

But thousands of Utahns have submitted paperwork to remove their signatures — and they likely will continue to do so. After their signatures are added to the official tally, Utah residents have 45 days to submit removal paperwork. 

The GOP spent at least $4.3 million to gather signatures — an effort marred by allegations of fraudulent signatures and misleading voters. 

As President Donald Trump’s unprecedented, mid-decade gerrymandering arms race unfolds across the country, the national GOP has rallied behind Utah Republicans’ efforts to maintain  control of all four congressional seats. 

Empowered by Trump and others in the MAGA universe – notably, the firm Patriot Grassroots, the late Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point Action group and election denier Scott Presler – the Utah GOP is leaving no stone unturned in its effort to claw back the redrawn district.

It’s also not the first case when the national GOP has rallied to prevent voters from exercising their right to have a say on state redistricting. In Missouri, both the state and national parties used every tool in their arsenal in a bid to stop Missourians from petitioning to put the legislature’s pro-GOP gerrymander to a statewide referendum — a right guaranteed under the state constitution.

Republicans filed lawsuits, tried to get signatures thrown out, wrote biased ballot language for the measure, sent out misleading mass text messages and even threatened to call immigration agents on signature gatherers.