This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Lt. Gov. Greg Bell's office is asking lawmakers to study how "electronic signatures" might be used in future online petitions to put candidates or initiatives on the ballot.
That comes even though that office has fought efforts recently to use electronic signatures.
"Contrary to some people's belief, the lieutenant governor is not against electronic signatures. In fact, he believes this is something we are moving towards," Mark Thomas, director of elections for the lieutenant governor's office, told the Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee on Wednesday.
The trick, he said, is how to guarantee that signatures provided online are genuine. Thomas said his office would like the Legislature to study how to make that happen, and developing a secure system could take years.
He suggested one possible way. He said the state could consider piggybacking collecting such signatures onto its current online voter registration system, which allows people to use their driver license number to import the signature they gave to the state when they obtained that license.
Thomas said the state might update that website to offer a list of petitions where signatures are being gathered to qualify candidates or initiatives for the ballot, and allow people to sign them electronically there. He said such a site might require mailing to registered voters an additional personal identification number for use on that site.
The Legislature passed a law this year that bans using electronic signatures for election purposes, but Thomas said that was meant more to give the state time to develop a uniform, secure future system.
It came after the lieutenant governor's office lost a court battle to prevent Farley Anderson, an independent gubernatorial candidate, from using electronic signatures.
It is also currently fighting Utahns for Ethical Government over an ethics initiative that the group hopes to place on the 2012 ballot. UEG claims that the initiative qualified as long as some electronic signatures are counted, but the lieutenant governor's office disagrees.