Gov. Spencer Cox announced Monday that he would not move up the vote on whether to repeal an anti-labor law to this November, meaning it will be on the ballot Nov. 3, 2026.
A vote on whether to repeal a law banning public employee unions from negotiating contracts with their government employers won’t be on the ballot until Nov. 3, 2026, Gov. Spencer Cox announced Monday.
The governor had the option of calling a special election to put it before voters during municipal elections this November, but that would have come with some additional costs and logistical challenges.
In 2023, when the state had a special election to replace retiring 2nd Congressional District Rep. Chris Stewart, lawmakers allocated $2.5 million to cover the extra costs.
While many cities and towns have elections this November, some races are not contested — in Salt Lake City, for example, just four of the seven council districts are up — and voters in unincorporated areas of counties would not normally vote in those elections either.
Holding the vote in 2025, however, could have been beneficial for some lawmakers by ensuring that they would not be up for reelection at the same time as the vote on whether to repeal the anti-labor bill, Utah State University political scientist Damon Cann said recently.
The referendum could drive voter turnout and impact the outcome in swing districts.
Last session, Republican lawmakers passed HB267, a bill banning government entities from negotiating with public employee unions. Its main impact was on teacher unions, but it also impacted some police officers, firefighters, health care workers, librarians, and others.
Labor groups fought back, collecting more than 320,000 signatures in 30 days — 251,590 were eventually deemed valid — from voters to put a measure on the ballot to repeal the law, making it the most successful signature-gathering effort in state history.
The law has been put on hold pending the outcome of the November 2026 election.
Both the labor backers of the repeal effort and a group supporting the law and opposing repeal have said they were indifferent when the vote occurs and that their side would prevail, whether it is held this November or next.
If Cox had decided to call a special election, it would not have been the first time in Utah. In 2007, then-Gov. Jon Huntsman called a special election for a referendum to repeal the Legislature’s school voucher law. Utahns voted two-to-one to repeal the voucher law.
Source: Utah News