Another Senate district has fallen short of signature threshold requirements — marking what is likely the second nail in the coffin for the effort to repeal Utah’s 2018 voter-approved …
Another Senate district has fallen short of signature threshold requirements — marking what is likely the second nail in the coffin for the effort to repeal Utah’s 2018 voter-approved anti-gerrymandering law known as Proposition 4.
Senate District 12, represented by Sen. Karen Kwan, D-West Valley City, fell four signatures short of its minimum 3,248 needed in order for the repeal effort to qualify in that district, according to the latest signature tallies posted on the lieutenant governor’s website Wednesday.
According to an analysis of those tallies by the political consulting and public affairs firm Morgan & May, 581 signatures have been removed from the 3,825 verified signatures that the group Utahns for Representative Government (founded by the head of the Utah GOP) had submitted in order to put the Proposition 4 repeal question on the 2026 November ballot.
It marks the second district to have toppled. Late last month, Senate District 15 — currently represented by Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights — was the first to fall short as signers pulled their names back, putting the Proposition 4 repeal effort on track to fail. As of Wednesday, 1,035 signatures had been removed from Senate District 15, putting it 377 signatures short.
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The initiative, however, won’t be officially disqualified until Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson makes the call that the repeal question won’t appear on the ballot. But because the window of time to add signatures has come and gone — with still weeks left for voters to remove their signatures by April 23 — the effort is likely already doomed.
Henderson’s deadline to declare the final fate of the Proposition 4 repeal effort is April 30.
“We will carefully review all data and ensure that counties have verified their numbers before making the declaration,” Henderson said in a statement when the first Senate district fell short.
Under Utah law, ballot initiative backers need to gather signatures from not only at least 8% of the state’s registered voters statewide, but also at least 8% of registered voters in at least 26 of the state’s 29 Senate districts. Utah has some of the most difficult requirements in the country for ballot initiatives.
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The repeal backers had initially gathered enough signatures in the minimum 26 of Utah’s 29 Senate districts, so opposition groups including Better Boundaries — the original sponsor of Proposition 4 in 2018 — that have been urging voters to remove their signatures only needed to tip the scales in one Senate district to block it from the ballot.
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But now they’ve done it in two.
In a statement issued Wednesday morning that echoed her remarks when District 15 came up short, Better Boundaries executive director Elizabeth Rasmussen said the group is “going to continue to work and make sure that anyone across the state who was tricked or misled into signing the repeal of Proposition 4 has the opportunity to remove their signature.”
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“Utahns of all political stripes deserve to pick their politicians, not have politicians that pick their voters,” she said. “Our mission of protecting Proposition 4 and the will of the people is exactly the same as it was in 2018 when Proposition 4 was originally passed by voters. As long as those in power keep demanding special treatment, we will be on the side of everyday Utahns.”
Utah Republican Party Chair Rob Axson did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday, but last month when the initiative first fell into the red, he issued a statement saying Utahns for Representative Government isn’t done fighting for the repeal — either through a lawsuit or a future initiative effort.
“We have significant concerns about the practices utilized by the opposition and continue to review the signature validation and removal process,” Axson said at the time. “Whether now or in the future, by litigation or initiative, we will repeal Prop 4. This fight is not over but just beginning.”
The Republican-led campaign to repeal Proposition 4 surfaced after Utah’s courts ruled that the 2021 Utah Legislature overstepped when it repealed and replaced it with a law that enabled them to ignore the voter-approved law’s ban on partisan gerrymandering, its neutral map-drawing standards, and an independent redistricting commission’s recommendations.
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The redistricting lawsuit that successfully alleged that the Legislature violated Utahns’ rights to alter and reform their government via ballot initiative eventually led to 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson voiding the Legislature’s 2021 congressional map as the result of an unconstitutional process. To remedy that unlawful map, she put in place a court-ordered map to be used for the 2026 elections. That map turned one of Utah’s four red congressional districts blue.
Source: Utah News