This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
This is how screwy things have gotten in the Utah Republican Party over its Count My Vote paranoia.
Some party members in good standing have opined in Facebook discussions that maybe the GOP should default as a qualified party for the ballot this election cycle to teach wayward Republican legislators a lesson so they will get in line as "true Republicans" in future elections.
These partisans who have supported purity tests for party candidates in order to prove they are real Republicans would rather not be on the ballot this year as a party than allow candidates to represent the GOP without following the strict rules of the party.
But Republican incumbents in the Legislature feel the strict interpretation of ballot qualification by State Republican Chair James Evans has put them between a rock and a hard place.
These incumbents also feel that their own political party is throwing up roadblocks and making it harder for them to be re-elected.
So who needs enemies?
The confusion is over the different interpretations of the Count My Vote law between the Republican Party and the Utah lieutenant governor's office, which is run by a Republican.
The Legislature, in a compromise with the Count My Vote organization that was collecting signatures for a ballot measure that would change Utah's nominating system to a direct primary, passed SB54, which provides a dual path to the primary election ballot.
That has been challenged politically and legally by the State Republican Party, which has spent thousands of dollars in the court of law and the court of public opinion to repeal it.
The party wants its candidates to go through the traditional caucus/convention system, where delegates elected at neighborhood caucuses then go to the state convention to nominate its candidates. If a candidate gets 60 percent of the delegate vote, he or she avoids a primary and goes directly to the general election ballot. If no candidate reaches the 60 percent threshold, there is a primary runoff between the top two.
But the SB54 compromise provides alternate paths to the primary ballot. Candidates can go through the caucus/convention system, or collect enough signatures on a petition to qualify for the primary ballot, or go both routes.
Most Republican incumbents, it appears, will be going both routes because of their fears the party's uncompromising attitude about who can be Republicans. Evans has taken the position that if candidates don't abide by all the rules of the party, they can be removed as party members and therefore, not eligible to be on the ballot.
One of those strict party rules is running for office through the caucus/convention process.
But the state says if a party doesn't comply with requirements of SB54, it cannot be on the ballot as a qualified political party. That means the party must recognize the signature-gathering route if that is what the candidate chooses.
Party leaders have said they will recognize candidates who gather signatures for ballot qualification as long as those candidates also go through the caucus/convention process as well.
But here's the hitch.
If a candidate going through the caucus/convention route fails to get at least 40 percent of the delegate vote, that candidate doesn't qualify for the ballot whether he or she gets enough signatures or not.
That violates state law and could get the Republican Party kicked off the ballot as a qualified party.
So incumbents feel they must go through the petition route as well as caucus/convention, even if they are confident they would win enough delegates to get the nomination.
That's because if any other candidate got enough signatures on a petition, but failed to get the 40 percent in convention, the party says that candidate is off the ballot and that puts the party in violation of the law and jeopardizes its status as a qualified party, meaning all of its candidates who didn't go down the signature-gathering road would be off the ballot.
And if they did go through the signature-gathering process, they would be on the ballot without a party designation next to their name.
The going rate for qualified petition processors is $5 per signature. A candidate for the State House of Representatives needs 1,000 signatures. A candidate for the State Senate needs 2,000 signatures. So incumbents will need to spend $5,000 for a House seat and $10,000 for a Senate seat to get on the ballot, even if they knew they would win at convention.
And if they end up on the ballot without that valuable "R" next to their name, that's the price they must pay, say some Republican purists who cannot accept the idea that they might have a candidate who had not been thoroughly vetted by the party's small army of delegates. —