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Lawmakers are considering adding a possible July runoff election to Utah's nominating system, an effort to make peace with the Utah Republican Party and ensure that a candidate can't win the nomination with support from just a small percentage of the voters.

In 2014, the Legislature passed the controversial SB54, allowing candidates to get on the primary ballot by gathering signatures on petitions or by going through the traditional route of being chosen by delegates at the party nominating convention.

That created the potential of having multiple candidates on the ballot, and the Utah Republican Party and a number of GOP legislators want to make sure candidates win a sizable portion, if not a majority, of the vote to get the nomination.

Now Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, the architect of SB54, is proposing having Utah follow the lead of at least two dozen other states and hold runoff elections if the top vote-getter in the primary doesn't win a convincing portion of the vote.

Bramble said he hasn't decided what segment of the vote candidates will need to get to avoid a runoff, but he thinks initially he will set the bar at 35 percent — meaning a candidate who tops that mark would win the nomination.

It is not an issue Bramble said he feels strongly about. Candidates in general elections win all the time with a plurality of the vote. Indeed, polls show that the winner in Utah's presidential contest will likely win with about a third of the vote.

But Bramble committed to the Republican Party to address its concerns on plurality. In exchange, Utah GOP Chairman James Evans said the party will drop its legal challenges to SB54.

Under Bramble's framework, the primary election would stay in late June and the runoff elections would be conducted entirely by mail and would conclude in late August. That would create a tight time frame for county clerks, particularly if they are required to conduct a recount or are engaged in a legal challenge over the outcome.

It also would come with a price tag. It costs about $2.5 million to run a statewide mail-in election. The cost of county or legislative runoffs would vary depending on the size of the county or district. The cost of any runoff elections would fall to the counties.

Bramble said there is some urgency to get a system in place to deal with the issue. Assuming Sen. Orrin Hatch doesn't run for re-election in 2018, and perhaps even if he does, there likely will be a line of Republican candidates vying for the spot.

There were other proposals on how to resolve the plurality issue. One was having voters rank their preference of candidates. The low vote-getters would be dropped out until one gets a majority.

Another would let party delegates choose between the top two vote-getters, although that could have disadvantaged signature-gathering candidates.

Rep. Brian Greene, R-Pleasant Grove, said the plurality problem didn't exist before SB54 — which was backed by the group Count My Vote to bolster voter turnout — and it doesn't make sense to try to solve it with runoff elections, which historically have seen low turnout.

In addition, he said, a runoff creates an entirely new campaign for candidates.

"[It's] another opportunity for special interests to influence our elections," Greene said, "and, where runoff elections are significantly smaller, I think it not only defeats the effort of Count My Vote, it also gives outside influences another opportunity, and probably a more concentrated opportunity, to affect that election."

He said he would favor the preferential voting as a solution that wouldn't require an additional election.

Count My Vote leaders have strongly opposed any proposal to turn the final decision back to party delegates.

Bramble said he plans to have a bill drafted and considered in the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January 2017.

Twitter: @RobertGehrke