Utahns learned recently that the Utah Republican Party is gathering voter signatures for both a referendum and an initiative as a way to hold control over the state’s four congressional districts.
If you are having trouble keeping up with this process, you are not alone. Even the state’s chief elections official — Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson (a Republican) — is questioning the effort. “This is injecting a level of chaos and confusion into this [redistricting map] process that is completely unprecedented,” Henderson said of the GOP announcement.
The referendum is designed to block the implementation of congressional district Map C, a somewhat less gerrymandered alternative to our current map. The initiative would give the Legislature the opportunity to repeal the fair boundaries provisions that became law when voters passed Proposition 4 in 2018.
I joined and now serve in leadership with the Utah Forward Party (and before that the United Utah Party, with which it has since merged) in large measure because of the party’s emphasis on ethical, fair and representative government. Our Legislature’s gutting of a law created by voters is none of those things. It undermines the right Utah’s Constitution explicitly gives voters to “alter or reform” our government. I was a candidate myself for a Utah Senate seat in 2022. I know firsthand that running as a minority candidate is challenging enough; gerrymandered boundaries shouldn’t make it more difficult still.
I urge you not to sign the petitions for the referendum or the initiative, as both are intended to let the Legislature’s Republican supermajority carry on with gerrymandered maps that do not fairly represent Utah’s diverse communities, geography and population.
The referendum and initiative is the latest salvo in a years-long effort to thwart the adoption of fair maps. A quick recap of how we got to this point: Utah voters passed the 2018 Proposition 4 ballot initiative, creating both an Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) and standards for drawing legislative maps. In 2020, the Legislature weakened provisions of the law.
Because the law no longer had teeth, in 2021, Republican lawmakers were able to disregard the map options painstakingly created by the IRC over the better part of a year. The commission took its role seriously, operating with transparency, many public hearings and explicit criteria. The Legislature opted instead for maps that it created (or rather had staff create) without transparency, clear criteria, or the eye to fairness that voters expected.
The matter ended up in court. Third District Court Judge Dianna Gibson ruled that the congressional map must be redrawn. Legislators hired an Ohio consultant to draw five new maps. In short order, and from among those maps, the Legislature selected Map C. The battle of the maps is now back in Gibson’s hands.
The planned referendum to block Map C (if selected by Gibson), is an unexpected twist, as that was the map option that most favors the Republican Party and which the GOP openly asked its members to support. Apparently, this map is undesirable because the gerrymandering isn’t as pronounced as it is in our current map. A Democrat might have a shot at winning one seat. Note that roughly 30 percent of Utah voters support Democrats in statewide races, so we would expect that at least one of four congressional seats would be competitive. But that would require a fair map.
In parallel to stalling or preventing Map C’s adoption, Republicans will pursue the second line of attack: an initiative to the Legislature. This type of indirect initiative is designed to trigger a legislative vote on repealing Proposition 4’s fair redistricting provisions instead of the public vote that was needed to pass them.
Putting the question before the Legislature requires only half the number of signatures that leaving the issue with the voters requires. Unless GOP legislators decide to honor the will of all their constituents — rather than just those in their party — they will vote to repeal Proposition 4. The Utah judiciary has told legislators they can’t repeal or amend laws created through ballot initiatives simply because they don’t like the laws. They must have a compelling reason to do so. But overturning the voters’ will by a legislative vote, after GOP voter signatures bring the question to the floor via an initiative, is a crafty but possibly legal way to overturn the voters’ will.
If this happens, the very reasonable desire of voters from any (or no) party who value political fair play will be subverted after seven years of herculean effort to get that fairness codified. After years of stalling and using taxpayer money to fight the voters’ will, it’s time Republicans played fair.
Kimberly Harris Wagner is a Davis County resident with an M.A. in political science and a Ph.D. in organizational behavior, both from UCLA. She serves in leadership for the Utah Forward Party, Women’s Work Utah and Utah Women Run. The opinions she expresses here are her own.
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