Utahns could find out as early as Sunday — but likely will not — if a Republican group gathered enough signatures to put an initiative on the ballot to repeal the state’s ban on partisan gerrymandering.
As of Friday, and after months of collecting support, the GOP-backed Utahns for Representative Government had 88,948 validated signatures in hand, according to a tally from the lieutenant governor’s office. That means UFRG needs to submit enough signatures by 5 p.m. on Feb. 15 to bring the total of valid signatures to 140,748 needed to qualify for the ballot.
That number, however, does not include unverified petition packets already submitted to county clerks, nor does it include packets collected by UFRG that still need to be submitted.
County clerks’ offices will be open this weekend to accept the final batches of signature packets that will determine the fate of the contentious initiative.
This week, the group sent a plea from Gov. Spencer Cox asking voters to sign the petition and UFRG is staging signature events across the state in a last-ditch push to make the ballot.
In the meantime, Republican legislators and other elected officials are pushing ahead with legal battles in both the Utah Supreme Court and a federal court, trying to undo a court-ordered congressional map currently in place for the 2026 election and restore the legislatively enacted map that created four safe Republican districts.
According to the lieutenant governor’s office, the matter must be decided no later than Feb. 23.
The initiative, if it qualifies for the ballot, will not impact the 2026 midterms. Instead, UFRG organizers hope voters will repeal the 2018 citizen-backed Proposition 4 initiative that created an independent redistricting commission, set neutral criteria for drawing maps and banned manipulating districts to favor one party.
Whether they will get there remains very much up in the air.
In addition to needing the 140,748 signatures statewide, UFRG needs to meet the same threshold in 26 of the state’s 29 senate districts.
As of the latest numbers Friday, they had reached that threshold in just four southern Utah districts and were less than halfway to the finish line in 10 Wasatch Front districts — meaning they will need to deliver tens of thousands of signatures on Sunday to reach their goal.
Unless UFRG concedes Sunday that it’s short of the goal, it is unlikely that Utahns will know any time soon if the initiative qualifies for the ballot. Even after the signatures are verified by the clerks, opponents will have 45 days to contact signers and try to convince them to rescind their support.
In 2018, for example, the Count My Vote initiative narrowly met the requirements to qualify for the ballot, but opponents of the measure managed to knock off enough signatures to keep it off the ballot.
Better Boundaries and other groups have already begun contacting voters and encouraging them to submit the required form with their county clerks to withdraw their signatures. Based on an analysis of the lists of signers, nearly 1,300 have done so thus far, with the push gaining momentum in the past week.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Steve Johnson Jr and Uneaka Best gather signatures to repeal Prop 4 at Linda Vista Park in Syracuse on Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026.
As UFRG pursues the repeal of Proposition 4, the Legislature and members of Utah’s congressional delegation are in both state and federal court trying to overturn rulings by 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson. Those rulings include that the boundaries drawn by the Legislature were unlawfully gerrymandered and imposing a new map for the 2026 election that includes a Democrat-leaning district in Salt Lake County.
On Wednesday, lawyers for the group fighting to retain Gibson’s court-ordered map asked U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby to dismiss the federal court challenge filed by U.S. Reps. Burgess Owens and Celeste Maloy, along with a group of county and city officials.
They argued the federal court should not consider the challenge because the U.S. Supreme Court has said such challenges should be handled in state court and the Legislature’s challenge to the map is still being litigated before the Utah Supreme Court.
“The [U.S.] Supreme Court has reiterated this power and duty of courts over and over,” they wrote. “The Court’s precedent dooms this lawsuit.”
Friday morning, the Legislature submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in support of that federal lawsuit that argues that the U.S. Constitution gives the Legislature the power to draw congressional boundaries and that Gibson overstepped her authority when she chose a map not drawn by the Legislature.
The long-running dispute stems from the Legislature’s decision to undo the voter-passed Proposition 4 and pass congressional boundaries in 2021 that did not abide by its constraints. The League of Women Voters and Mormon Women for Ethical Government sued, arguing that gutting an initiative effectively deprives citizens of their constitutional right to pass initiatives.
The Utah Supreme Court agreed the Legislature overstepped, and subsequently Gibson reinstated Proposition 4, voided the congressional map drawn by Republican lawmakers and ordered the boundaries redrawn to comply with the criteria.
Gibson then rejected the Legislature’s second attempt at a map and chose boundaries recommended by the plaintiffs, which included a Democrat-leaning district.
If UFRG’s initiative to repeal Proposition 4 makes it onto the ballot and passes, legislators will be able to redraw the congressional maps for the 2028 election without having to worry about Proposition 4’s constraints.