County clerks are continuing to verify signatures gathered by the Utah Republican Party in the GOP’s effort to put an initiative on the 2026 ballot to repeal Utah’s ban on partisan gerrymandering.
So far, 20,857 signatures have been validated, according to the latest update Friday from the lieutenant governor’s office. That puts the party nearly 15% of the way toward its goal.
More are in the pipeline. Utah Republican Party Chair Rob Axson estimated this week that it has gathered about half the 140,748 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
The party also has to meet specific thresholds in 26 of the 29 state Senate districts for the repeal effort to qualify. So far, Republicans are doing best in Senate District 27 — running through rural parts of central and southern Utah — where they are 38% of the way to checking off their first county.
The GOP has until Feb. 14 to gather those signatures.
The party launched its initiative effort in response to a series of court rulings finding that the Republican-dominated Legislature violated the Utah Constitution when it gutted the Better Boundaries initiative and reinstating the voter-enacted law.
With the law back in place, a judge determined that the Legislature’s congressional boundaries did not comply with the initiative and directed lawmakers to draw a new map.
The judge later ruled that the new map didn’t comply with the anti-gerrymandering law and imposed boundaries for the 2026 election that created a Democratic-leaning seat in the northern part of Salt Lake County.
The party is using hundreds of volunteers and also hired paid signature gatherers. But a number of Utahns have complained that at least some collectors are using misleading tactics to trick people into signing the petitions. In those cases, voters can file a form with their county clerks, asking to have their signatures removed.
If the party collects enough valid signatures, voters will decide next November whether to repeal the Better Boundaries initiative. It would not impact the congressional map used in the 2026 election but would give the Legislature the latitude to redraw the map in the future without any input from an independent redistricting commission or a prohibition on the map favoring one party over another.
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