This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

State Republican Party Chairman James Evans did a victory lap and then, to use a football analogy, spiked the ball in the end zone and jumped into the crowd for high-fives.

It was his celebration of victory over his Count My Vote foes, claiming that because of a judge's recent ruling, his party can keep its exclusive way of nominating and electing candidates just the way it always has.

But to use another football analogy, Evans could be flagged for excessive celebration.

In other words, not so fast, Mr. Chairman. You might want to reread the law you think the judge has just struck down.

The law is the result of SB54, which was a compromise the Legislature struck with the Count My Vote group that was on its way to successfully gathering enough signatures for a ballot initiative to change the candidate nominating process.

The petition, had it gone forward to the ballot, would have changed Utah's caucus/convention system to a direct primary in which candidates could qualify for the ballot by gathering a prescribed number of signatures.

Under the current system, delegates are selected at neighborhood caucuses to choose their party's candidates at a convention. Often, the nominee gets enough votes at convention to avoid a primary and, therefore, because Utah is virtually a one-party state, is guaranteed winning the election, even though it was just by a few thousand people in the convention instead of by the general populace.

The Republican Party sued the state to overturn SB54, claiming it violated the party's right to free association.

Evans' cause for optimism was U.S. District Judge David Nuffer's ruling that the section of the law that requires a political party to allow unaffiliated and independent candidates to vote in its primary election is a violation of that party's right to free association. The party, in other words, can limit voters in its primary to those who a registered as members of that party.

Game, set, match, according to Evans. It's over. And the party can go back to its cushy little system of having a few insiders pick delegates, who are likewise insiders, to choose the candidates at convention, who are also insiders. The greater interest can be ignored.

However, there is a crater-sized flaw to Evans' optimism.

It's the severability clause.

That clause says that if any part of the law is found to be unconstitutional, that part can be severed and the rest of the law remains intact.

When the Legislature passed SB54, the bill incorporated the exact language of the Count My Vote ballot initiative. That said candidates will qualify for the primary ballot by gathering enough signatures as prescribed in the statute.

The bill, as part of the compromise, then allowed a second path to the ballot — through the caucus convention system. But the party had to meet certain conditions in order to be a qualified party for the ballot if it went through the caucus convention option.

One of those conditions was allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in the primary. The Republican state delegates at their convention this summer voted to accept the conditions to be a qualified party.

So even if one part of the law is declared unconstitutional — the forced acceptance of unaffiliated voters to participate in their primary — the other qualifications apply, including the part that allows candidates to be on the ballot through the signature gathering process.

So Chairman Evans, that's a 15-yard penalty, enforceable on the kickoff. —