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By refusing to form a committee to filter state school board candidates, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert on Tuesday created a path to the general election for anyone who files for candidacy.

"They will all go on the general election ballot," said Mark Thomas, elections director for the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office. "There is no primary [election] mechanism now in statute."

State law currently calls for a nominating and recruiting committee to interview candidates and submit names to the governor, who then places two names for each school board seat on the general election ballot.

That system was all but struck down last September, when U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups found the committee to be an unconstitutional barrier to free speech.

Waddoups ordered three previously rejected candidates to be placed on the ballot, but stopped short of issuing a final ruling on the law in order to allow lawmakers to craft a new selection method.

But division over whether elections should be partisan or nonpartisan led to an impasse in the Legislature, and the discredited nominating committee remained in statute.

On Tuesday, Herbert announced that he would not be forming the nominating and recruiting committee and encouraged legislative leaders to resolve the issue.

"It's one of those things we all know needs to be done," Herbert's spokesman Jon Cox said, "but we need to be able to find something that's agreeable to all parties."

During the 2015 legislative session, lawmakers were repeatedly briefed on the implications of Waddoups' ruling, and the scenarios that could result if a new system was not created.

They were told that continuing with the nominating committee would likely result in additional lawsuits by rejected candidates, and further rulings from the courts.

Those actions could include returning candidates to the ballot, resulting in plurality winners, or the election could be ruled as invalid, with open board seats treated as vacancies subject to appointment by the governor.

Last year, 70 individuals filed as candidates for six board seats.

"In an ideal situation, there needs to be a narrowing of the ballot," Cox said. "The question is, how is the ballot narrowed, and by whom?"

Cox said the governor had not yet taken a position on what election method he would prefer to replace the current system.

Traditionally, debate has centered on either direct nonpartisan elections or direct partisan elections, but other models, including a fully-appointed board, have been proposed.

This year, Republican Sens. Al Jackson, of Highland, and Evan Vickers, of Cedar City, have pitched a compromise bill that would see the 15-member board reduced to 13 seats, with four members chosen through a nonpartisan election, four members chosen through a partisan election and five members appointed by the governor.

Next year's legislative session concludes on March 10, one week before the candidate filing deadline on March 17.

It's "not an ideal situation" for school board candidates, Thomas said, as any legislative compromise will occur after many have filed for candidacy.

"They'll have a few months to react to whatever the Legislature might do," he said.

bwood@sltrib.com Twitter: @bjaminwood