Republican lawmakers manipulated Utah’s legislative process to ensure a bill that would impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots would gain traction in the Legislature.
And once it began seeing movement, a GOP elected official propelled the bill’s progress with baseless claims of election fraud during a Wednesday evening committee hearing, while another used time meant for public feedback to read a poem written using artificial intelligence.
HB479 from Rep. Jefferson Burton, R-Salem, was initially assigned to the House Government Operations Committee, which normally weighs election-related legislation and is chaired by Burton. But as it became apparent the legislation likely did not have adequate support in Government Operations, it was reassigned to the House Public Utilities and Energy Committee nearly two weeks later.
Burton’s bill would further restrict voting by mail after he successfully introduced a bill last year to end Utah’s popular universal vote-by-mail elections system. The new bill also revives some of the measures that lawmakers stripped from an initial version of 2025’s legislation.
Rules Committee Chair Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, moved Tuesday on the House floor to transfer the bill, saying he was doing so at Burton’s request. One of the two Democrats on the 12-member House Government Operations Committee, Rep. Andrew Stoddard, R-Sandy, objected.
“Colleagues, I don’t see any reason why this bill should be moved,” Stoddard told representatives. “I think we’ve got our committees where we gain a certain amount of expertise in these issues. [Burton is] the chair of this committee, he’s familiar with the committee, and I think we should keep it where it was sent.”
The motion passed, with a handful of representatives shouting, “No!”
In an interview, Burton told The Salt Lake Tribune that he asked that his bill be moved so that it would move forward.
“I’m not going to run that bill in a committee where I might not get the votes. I’m not going to lie to you — I never will. That’s how sausage is made up here,” Burton said. “I could have gotten this bill through Government Ops,” he added. “I was working on those guys. … But frankly, there are people [on the committee] in districts that have a hard time voting for something when they think it might impact their reelection."
Unsubstantiated fraud claims
The legislation passed out of the House Public Utilities and Energy Committee 8-3 on Wednesday evening, with one Republican, Rep. Christine Watkins, and two Democrats voting against it — but not before Burton alleged, without evidence, that there is widespread fraud in Utah’s elections.
“We do know that 300 dead people voted,” the sponsor told committee members, and “One county actually admitted to me that they found three people who voted seven times before they received citizenship.”
When The Tribune asked if he could share the source of the information and data behind his claims, Burton declined to disclose where the information came from, but told a reporter he would share documents related to the figures Thursday. As of Thursday afternoon, Burton had not yet shared those details.
Reviews of Utah’s elections performed by legislative auditors and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office, which oversees Utah’s elections, refute Burton’s claims.
The Tribune reported last month that after spending months reviewing 2.1 million people on Utah’s voter rolls, the lieutenant governor’s office did not find a single instance of a noncitizen voting and only one instance of an ineligible individual registering to vote.
And a 2024 legislative audit identified two votes cast for deceased people in 2023’s municipal elections, and three individuals who appeared to have voted twice in an election. But auditors noted, “we did not find significant fraud.”
Clerks for the state’s 29 counties, who run Utah’s elections, collectively oppose the bill. In a statement to The Tribune on their behalf, Weber County Clerk Ricky Hatch, who is a Republican, said HB479 “actually provides very little improvement to election integrity and has an outsized negative impact” on voter access and public funds.
But an outlier in their group is Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson, who was outspoken about his doubts regarding the results of the 2020 presidential election when he ran for office in 2022.
As his two-minute allotment to speak in support of Burton’s bill expired, he asked, “Can I just have 30 seconds more?” Committee Chair Rep. Colin Jack, R-St. George, replied, “Can you do it in like five?”
Davidson said he could, then spent nearly a minute reading a poem he said was produced by AI.
“On ballots and packets, the signatures wiggle. What once looked like names now bounce, bend and jiggle,” Davidson recited.
Meanwhile, by Jack’s count, behind Davidson stood eight other people waiting to speak in support of the bill, and around 30 individuals hoping to speak against it.
Among the attendees asking representatives to vote down the bill were the mayor of Helper, in Carbon County, and Box Elder County Commissioner Lee Perry, a former Republican state lawmaker. Both said HB479 would make it harder for their constituents to vote.
“It takes you two-and-a-half hours to get across my county,” Perry said. “There will be residents that will not be able to get their ballots in.”
A push to end mail-in voting
The proposal in last year’s election bill was largely driven by the group that drafted the controversial Project 2025 playbook in anticipation of President Donald Trump’s 2024 victory, urging the president to exert more control over elections.
While Burton’s measure last year requires Utah voters to opt in once every eight years to receive their ballot in the mail starting in 2029, HB479 goes further by also requiring them to indicate when registering how they will return their ballot — to a drop box or through the mail.
Those who return their ballot to a drop box would only be able to submit it during certain hours, when it would be watched by two poll workers. Poll workers, beginning in 2027, would check the voter’s ID and determine whether they believe it belongs to the person returning the ballot, and whether it matches the information on the ballot.
A substitute adopted Thursday also added in components of a stalled bill from Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton, that would allow Utahns to register to vote when obtaining a hunting or fishing license. Senators blocked that bill after he attempted making drastic changes that would have allowed state election officials and legislative auditors to contract with third parties to audit Utah’s elections.
Utah began making voting by mail more accessible to increase voter turnout — adding barriers to casting a ballot through the postal services would likely have the opposite effect.
The bill would also disproportionately impact vulnerable communities in the state that have historically struggled to have their voices, including those living in rural areas, disabled Utahns and Native Americans. Utah was the last state to grant its Native American residents the right to vote.
The bill will next be heard by the full House.