As Utah Republicans make a final push to get an initiative on the ballot that could restore the Legislature’s ability to gerrymander, the Utah County Clerk has turned over several petition packets to the county attorney for an investigation into whether they were forged.
In addition to a few packets the clerk, Aaron Davidson, sent to the county attorney previously, a total of 27 packets containing hundreds of signatures have been flagged as potentially having falsified signatures.
Davidson said more than 90% of the signatures on the suspect packets were rejected during the review process. His office followed up by contacting the voters who supposedly signed the petitions, and, the clerk said, the voters either didn’t sign or had signed previously and their names showed up again.
He turned the packets over to the county attorney this week. If the signatures were, in fact, forged, it could result in charges ranging from a class A misdemeanor to a third-degree felony.
Utah Republican Party Chair Rob Axson said his group, Utahns for Representative Government, worked with Davidson as soon as they were made aware of the irregularities in December and ended its contract with the hired signature gatherers in question.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah County Clerk Aaron Davison oversees ballot counting at the Utah County Administration Building in Provo, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024.
He also provided Davidson with petition packets that had not been returned by the suspect signature gatherers in order to help with any potential inquiries.
“We fully support the diligence of all Utah clerks to ensure trust and confidence in our initiative and in Utah’s overall election process,” Axson said in a statement Friday. “A few bad actors should not take away from the hard work of nearly 1,000 individuals, including many volunteers, who are working hard to repeal Prop 4.”
Meanwhile, UFRG has until Feb. 15 to submit the signatures needed to qualify for the ballot. As of Friday, county clerks had validated 76,079 signatures, meaning another 64,669 are needed statewide.
Additionally, UFRG has to get signatures from at least 8% of the registered voters in 26 of the state’s 29 Senate districts in order to qualify for the ballot. As of Friday, they had only met the threshold in three southern Utah districts and continued to lag in districts along the Wasatch Front.
While the challenge looks daunting, UFRG could be waiting to submit signatures it has already gathered since, once the signatures are validated, initiative opponents have 45 days to contact voters who signed the petitions to urge them to rescind their support.
This week, Better Boundaries, the group that got Proposition 4 passed in 2018, began mailing pre-filled removal forms to voters, minus a voter’s signature, along with a pre-paid envelope and a letter encouraging them to remove their support.
Proposition 4, which narrowly passed in 2018, created an independent redistricting commission, established neutral criteria for drawing the maps and prohibited manipulating the boundaries to favor one party over another.
The Legislature largely repealed the initiative, but the League of Women Voters and Mormon Women for Ethical Government sued, arguing that gutting an initiative effectively deprives citizens of the constitutional right to the initiative.
The Utah Supreme Court agreed, and subsequently 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson reinstated Proposition 4 and voided the congressional map drawn by Republican lawmakers and ordered the boundaries redrawn.
Gibson then rejected the Legislature’s second attempt at a map and chose boundaries recommended by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which create a Democrat-leaning district in Salt Lake County. Republican legislators have said they plan to challenge Gibson’s ruling, but if that appeal fails, the initiative becomes the fallback option.
If the repeal question ends up on the ballot and is approved by voters in November, the Legislature would presumably be able to draw a new map for the 2028 election without limitations on how much it favors Republicans over Democrats.
To get the initiative on the ballot, the party is using hundreds of volunteers and hired signature gatherers. A number of Utahns have complained that at least some collectors are using misleading tactics to trick people into signing the petitions.
Both supporters of the initiative and opponents have reported incidents of threats and violence, some of which resulted in police being called, as the signature gathering effort nears its deadline.