In action on two bills about elections on Tuesday, the Senate passed one to make it tougher for voter initiatives to appear on ballots — and killed another that would have allowed candidates to receive nominations from more than one party.
The Senate voted 26-1 to pass SB165 by Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, and sent it to the House.
It would prohibit using electronic signatures on websites to help qualify a candidate, party or referendum for the ballot. It also would base the number of signatures needed to get an initiative on the ballot on the number of votes cast for president in the last election, instead of those cast for governor —Â essentially requiring more signatures.
That comes after Utahns for Ethical Government attempted last year to use electronic signatures to help put its ethics reform initiative on the ballot. That initiative was unpopular with lawmakers because it would do such things as cap campaign donations, ban contributions from corporations and ban lawmakers from giving donations they receive to other politicians.
On another election bill, the Senate voted 16-8 to kill SB176 to allow politicians to gain the nomination of more than one political party.
Sen. Ben McAdams, D-Salt Lake City, said that would, for example, allow someone to be nominated by both the Democratic and Green parties. He said a winning candidate with more than one party nomination would be more likely to listen to minor parties views, and give them more voice.
Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Eagle Mountain, endorsed the bill saying representatives of a third party once said they wished they could throw their support to him, but it was not allowed by law.
But Bramble said he worried the bill could have the unintended consequence of giving minor parties more power than their numbers justify —Â and most senators sided with him.
