I’m a registered Republican in Utah, and I’ve been a regular attendee of my neighborhood caucus meetings for 12 years and counting. I’ve served as a county delegate for approximately eight years and a state delegate for three.
But many members of my family and a number of close friends don’t support most of what the Republican Party stands for in Utah, and yet they don’t have any voice in state politics. How is this fair?
Why is the Utah Legislature so reluctant to give non-Republicans a right to their voice? What are they so afraid of?
Chris Null, the chair of the Salt Lake County Republican Party, makes no secret of the fact that he was an independent in Arizona before he moved here less than 10 years ago. When, in a recent quarterly central committee meeting, I asked him his opinion about opening GOP primaries to all Utahns, he stated that this would unfairly deprive him of his vote.
My response: First, it would not deprive any Republican of his or her vote. It would dilute it almost imperceptibly. Secondly, I have a brother who has lived in Utah his entire life aside from three years in Canada for graduate school. He has never had a voice in Utah politics. So why should a newcomer to Utah have preference over my brother and other lifelong Utahns when it comes to choosing our representatives?
Another question: Why is the GOP determined to create legislative districts with a mix of rural and urban voters unless it’s simply because they know they can dilute the Democratic vote by doing that? If it makes sense to put St. George and Farmington and parts of Salt Lake City in the same district, which it doesn’t, then why not solve the problem of gerrymandering once and for all by moving to at-large state-wide elections for our four representatives?
Let each legal Utah resident choose whether to vote for four separate at-large candidates or pool their votes by assigning two or more votes to a single candidate. That way, if people feel strongly about a specific candidate, they can award all of their four legislative votes to that single candidate and at least have a chance that one of their four representatives will actually represent them in Congress.
Gerrymandering, whether by Democrats in Maryland and California or by Republicans in Texas and Utah, is offensive and undemocratic. And we could do away with it entirely if we took the approach I have put forward here.
David Harris, Salt Lake City
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