Utah Prop. 4 Repeal Nears Ballot, Sues to Stop Removals

The campaign to put a repeal of Utah’s Prop. 4 on the November ballot is 86 verified signatures shy of the statewide goal. On Wednesday it crossed the 8% threshold in five more Senate districts, bringing the total to 14 of the required 26.

So, why are its backers sprinting to court? Because the coordinated push to get people to pull their signatures appears to be working—and could be enough to keep the initiative off the ballot.

On Tuesday, Utahns for Representative Government (UFRG) sued in Utah District Court, alleging that the “signature removal kits,” which include forms prefilled with the voter’s name, pre-addressed to county clerks, and stamped with prepaid postage, that Utahns for Responsive Government (URG) and Better Boundaries are mailing to repeal-petition signers violate Utah election law in several ways:

Prepaid postage amounts to “paying” voters to remove their signatures, which UFRG says is illegal.
Prefilled forms and mass mailings, they argue, undermine the requirement that voters personally provide information and act on their own when requesting removal—and that clerks verify that information before any signature is pulled.
URG and Better Boundaries, UFRG claims, are violating campaign-finance laws by failing to register as a political issues committee (PIC) despite spending thousands on the effort and by omitting required disclaimers on the mailers.

UFRG wants a judge to order the Lieutenant Governor and all 29 county clerks to reject any removal requests submitted using the prepaid, prefilled forms and to preserve those documents for later review.

On Feb. 11, UFRG also sent a letter to the Lieutenant Governor, noting that URG dissolved as a committee in 2019 but is now running an active campaign and appears to be spending well above the $750 threshold that triggers PIC registration and disclosure.

The verified signature data suggests that the coordinated removal campaign is a real threat to the initiative’s chances of qualifying for the November ballot.

State law requires signatures from 8% of registered voters in 26 of the state’s 29 Senate districts. As of Wednesday, the repeal campaign has cleared that bar in 14.

At the current verification pace, the campaign projects to hit the 8% mark in 27 districts—one above the minimum. That means they can afford to lose exactly one district off that total. Lose two, and the measure falls off the ballot.

SD13 will likely be the last district to qualify, and it’s already the most vulnerable, with 246 removals, the most of any district. More losses there could stop it from clearing the 8% bar completely.

Several districts are expected to cross the 8% threshold with narrow margins, making them prime targets for removals.

SD3 met the 8% threshold on Wednesday with a surplus of 125 signatures. There have already been 169 signature removals in this district, which is more than the current surplus.
SD10 has qualified with a surplus of 129 signatures and 174 removals processed.
SD16: Currently 129 signatures short of qualifying and 218 removals, the second most of any district.
SD12: Needs 158 signatures to hit 8% but is already at 199 removals.