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Letter: Utah should be a multi-party state

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) The United Utah Party has their Salt Lake County convention at Midvale Middle School in Midvale on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019. The two-year-old party hoped to attract people upset with the extreme right and left.

Is Utah’s Republican-dominated Legislature accountable to voters? No! Here are two examples.

In 2018, voters passed Proposition 4 to form an independent redistricting commission. That sounds like a success. But wait! In 2020, the Legislature changed it so its members can redraw political boundaries creatively to further favor Republicans. So much for getting rid of gerrymandering, as we expected.

Another example: Most states have term limits that facilitate regular turnover of officeholders and make a Legislature more accountable to the will of the people. Utah had term limits from 1994 to 2003, until Republicans in the Legislature realized the limits could undermine their power. Restoring term limits is long overdue.

If we don’t like what our legislators are doing, why do we keep reelecting them? Utah government needs competition for the Republican seats to spur accountability. The United Utah Party has 25 moderate candidates running throughout Utah, and electing them will begin to make this less of a one-party state.

These “Uniter” candidates will work with people from any party to find practical solutions, and they are willing to compromise to bring about reforms such as independent redistricting — as initially intended — and term limits.

Learn about these and other important reforms at UnitedUtah.org. It is time to make Utah a multiparty state, to better reflect the will of our diverse population.

Lora Beth Brown, Highland

Utah County Chair for United Utah Party

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