This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Utah Republican Party has eliminated online discussions and opinion posts on its official Facebook page because, well, people were saying too many nasty things about each other.

The party's State Central Committee decided last week to change the content because posting on the page could reflect badly on the party. Now, the page is under the control of state GOP Chairman Thomas Wright, who is using it to relay news like meeting times, locations and other official business.

To fill the void, some Republicans have launched an unofficial Utah Republican Party Facebook page where folks can still post their opinions and observations. But that has raised the question of whether that page violates intellectual property protections for the official Republican Party. Because of that, the page managers may change the name soon.

Divide and conquer? • One poster on the new unofficial Facebook page asked if non-Reublicans should be allowed to post on the page. That created quite a discussion with some saying it was OK, others saying Democrats shouldn't be allowed to exist, let alone post on the sacred unofficial Republican page.

Then, Democratic candidate for Salt Lake County mayor, Ben McAdams, chimed in, saying he would like to participate so he could understand all points of view — Republican and Democrat.

One poster then said that if Mike Winder ended up being the Republican mayoral candidate, the poster would vote for McAdams, Democrat or no Democrat. That triggered a response from another poster who said if Mark Crockett won the Republican nod, then he, too, would vote for McAdams. Crockett was officially announced as the winner Tuesday.

The nastiness of that GOP primary still seems to be resonating.

Hazards of email • Former Salt Lake City Schools Superintendent Donald Thomas emailed a letter to the Salt Lake Tribune editorial board June 30, criticizing a piece by conservative columnist Rich Lowry that blasted Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' decision on health care reform. Thomas copied the email to me.

Six days later I got an email from Donald Thomas informing me that he had lost his luggage containing his passport and identification cards and he was stranded in Spain. He asked me to send him $900 and he would pay me back.

Obviously, it wasn't the real Don Thomas, who also happens to be my neighbor. I surmise his email address was lifted by folks who scan those sorts of things then send the plea for money to the addressees in the original email.

Just a fair warning.

Hard to find good help • When some voters in the recent Republican primary noticed the wrong legislative candidates were listed on their ballot and brought that to the attention of the poll worker, they were told to just vote for the candidates that appeared anyway.

The problem was quickly resolved by Utah County Clerk Bryan Thompson who, upon receiving complaints, sent staffers to the polling location to straighten out a coding error and make sure everyone got the right ballot.

Thompson said there were five voting precincts at Manila Elementary School between Pleasant Grove and Cedar Hills. Four were in Legislative District 57, which had a primary between Brian Greene and John Stevens. One precinct was in District 27, which had a primary between Mike Kennedy and Sarah Nitta.

Through the coding error, said Thompson, 19 District 27 ballots were printed as though they were District 57 ballots.