The Utah GOP discovers one weird trick to kill anti-gerrymandering measure

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The Utah GOP has unveiled a brazen scheme to kill voter-approved redistricting reforms—and this time, they’re using voters themselves as the weapon.

On Monday, the state party announced a two pronged assault on the new map approved by lawmakers last week and Proposition 4, the anti-gerrymandering ballot initiative approved by voters in 2018. The move comes after courts slapped down legislative attempts to gut the reforms.

To attack the new map, the party is launching a referendum effort which, if successful, will put the Option C map from lawmakers on hold until voters can weigh in on it at the ballot box in the 2026 election. The party must collect more than 134,000 signatures, equal to 8% of the active voters in the state, by November 15. They must also meet that 8% threshold in 15 of Utah’s 29 state Senate districts.

Earlier this year, a referendum challenging HB267, the “union busting” law passed by lawmakers, gathered enough signatures to send the issue to the ballot next year. That required a Herculean effort from a coalition of labor organizations, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to cross the finish line. Now the Utah GOP wants to replicate that grassroots success using the full weight of the party machinery.

The second effort is an end run around the courts, who have repeatedly said that lawmakers trampled on the constitution when they repealed Prop. 4 in 2020. Instead of lawmakers initiating the repeal, this time it will come from voters through the state’s “indirect initiative” process.

Utah is one of nine states that allows citizens to collect enough signatures to force the Legislature to vote up or down on a proposed law.

While referendums and ballot initiative require organizers to collect signatures from 8% of active voters in Utah, an indirect initiative requires half that total, or about 70,000. Organizers must also reach the 4% signature total in 26 of Utah’s 29 state Senate districts. If the legislature rejects an indirect initiative, then organizers have the opportunity to collect signatures from an additional 4% of Utah’s active voters to place the issue on the ballot for voters.

The Utah GOP’s initiative will allow the Republican supermajority in the legislature to vote to repeal Prop. 4 without running into any troublesome constitutional or legal roadblocks. Since this effort would technically come from voters and not lawmakers, Republicans can claim they're respecting democracy while orchestrating its demolition from behind the curtain.

Utah’s indirect initiative process has been used a few times in the past, most recently in 1999. That year, there were two indirect initiatives presented to lawmakers. One, to make English the official language of state government, was defeated on the floor of the House. The second, which came out of a long-running dispute between banks and credit unions, was approved after the two sides reached a compromise.