The latest wrinkle on this procedural Shar-Pei is Senate Bill 71, enacted by this year's legislative session and signed into law by Gov. Jon Huntsman. It provides that incumbents on the existing seven-member Jordan school board will serve on either the board of the rump district or the seven-member board of the new east-side one, depending upon where they live, without having to run for re-election.

This is undemocratic. SB71, combined with other election laws, means, for example, that J. Dale Christensen, who won a seat on the existing board in 2004, can continue to serve on the board of the reduced district through 2012 without ever facing re-election.

In another example, Sherril H. Taylor, also elected to the Jordan board in 2004, can serve on the board of the new east-side school district through 2010 without ever running for election to that seat.

The underlying reason for this anti-democratic policy was to provide institutional memory and continuity to the new school boards. But the voters could have accomplished this on their own. Assuming that some incumbent members of the existing board would have filed for election in either the rump district or the new one, the voters could have weighed that as they went to the polls.

In all, 101 candidates filed for the 14 seats in the two districts. If the voters wanted experience, they could have voted the incumbents into new seats. Or, they could have decided that it was time for new people and new ideas.

As it stands, SB71 took that decision out of voters' hands.

It also has sown confusion.

Because Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen did not know whether SB71 would be signed into law before the filing period for candidates opened March 7, she advised candidates to file for seats occupied by the incumbents. Huntsman signed the bill March 14, and, as a result, 31 candidates who filed to run against incumbents are now by law ineligible.

This is a strange way to run a republic.