Utah Lawmakers Push Constitutional Amendment to Rewrite, Erase Citizen Ballot Measures

Two Parties
Photo by the Unsplash+ Community. Unplash+ license obtained by author.
Published: 28 Aug, 2024
3 min read

Photo Credit: Unsplash+ Community / Unsplash

 

Video Source: RepresentUs / YouTube

Many voters heard about Robert F. Kennedy Jr suspending his 2024 presidential campaign. Many voters heard about the drama over "hot mics" in presidential debates.

But how many voters know that Utah lawmakers held an emergency legislative session last Wednesday just so they could undermine the will of state voters?

Or, that Ohio lawmakers are trying to deceive voters in order to codify partisan gerrymandering? It's almost as if they took advantage of the distractions. 

Utah Lawmakers Don't Like Voters Taking Policy into Their Own Hands

The Utah Legislature advanced a constitutional amendment to the November ballot that if passed will give its members the authority to rewrite or outright repeal any citizen-led ballot initiative approved by voters.

This amendment would also apply to ballot measures approved in previous elections. The first target? Likely Proposition 4 from 2018, which created an independent advisory commission on redistricting.

Summed up, voters created a 7-member independent redistricting commission that makes recommendations for new electoral maps every decade, but ultimately it is still up to the legislature to approve the maps.

IVP Donate

The state legislature tried to weaken Proposition 4 with SB 200 in 2020, which removed the initiative's requirement that lawmakers explain their decision-making on maps and its prohibition on partisan gerrymandering.

Lawmakers also created their own redistricting commission. 

In other words, they repealed and replaced Proposition 4. However, on July 11, 2024, the Utah Supreme Court unanimously ruled that SB 200 was unconstitutional under state law:

"The people’s right to alter or reform the government through an initiative is constitutionally protected from government infringement, including legislative amendment, repeal, or replacement of the initiative in a manner that impairs the reform enacted by the people."

The justices sent the case back to a lower court to determine the proper redistricting process for the state's congressional districts, all of which heavily favor the Republican Party. 

Lawmakers cited the court's decision as the reason they pushed their constitutional amendment to strip voters of their power to enact government and voting reform.

While it seems like this amendment would be dead-on-arrival before voters, lawmakers attached incentives to support it -- incentives that have colloquially been called "ballot candy."

Like banning foreign entities from spending money in favor of or opposition to state ballot measures. 

Let Us Vote : Sign Now!

Ohio Lawmakers Seek to Codify Gerrymandering by Confusing Voters

The Ohio secretary of state certified 535,000 of the more than 731,000 signatures collected in support of a Citizens Not Politicians ballot initiative aimed at ending partisan gerrymandering.

If passed the initiative would replace the Ohio Redistricting Commission, which is composed entirely of elected officials, with an independent redistricting process.

It establishes a 15-member citizen redistricting commission of Republicans, Democrats, and independents who do not hold (or have held) elected office. Political party officials and lobbyists would be barred as well.

And the initiative explicitly prohibits partisan gerrymandering by stating that maps drawn cannot give an unfair advantage to a political party or its members.

However, ballot language approved by state officials say the 15-member commission would be “required to gerrymander” Ohio's electoral districts -- language designed to confuse voters.

AP reported on a lawsuit filed by the initiative's campaign to get the ballot language corrected:

"In its lawsuit, Citizens Not Politicians said the approved ballot language 'gets it entirely backward,' since their proposal bans partisan manipulation of the maps. 'It does so by ensuring that the plans adopted by the Commission seek to approximate the statewide partisan preferences of Ohioans while drawing geographically contiguous districts that reflect communities of interest,' the lawsuit says.

Republican state Sen. Theresa Gavarone argues the language meets the Oxford English Dictionary definition of the word "gerrymander." However, the OED definition explicitly defines it as a manipulative practice to gain an unfair advantage

More Choice for San Diego

In this article

Related articles

Judge about to slower gavel.
Believe It or Not, There Is Still a 2024 Election That Hasn't Been Called
It may be hard to believe, but as of April 2025, there is still one election in the US from the last election cycle that has not been called: the 2024 North Carolina Supreme Court election between incumbent Democrat Justice Allison Riggs and Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin....
09 Apr, 2025
-
3 min read
businessman holding his hands to his face.
New Poll: Half of US Voters Say They Voted For 'Lesser of Two Evils' in 2024
Citizen Data polled US voters following the 2024 elections and found that nearly half (47%) said they cast their ballot, not for the candidate they supported the most, but for the candidate they determined was the 'lesser of two evils.'...
09 Dec, 2024
-
2 min read
Andrew Yang
Andrew Yang: Democrats Have Only Themselves to Blame
Former presidential candidate and Forward Party Founder Andrew Yang says that if Democratic leaders are looking for someone to blame for their 2024 loss, they need to take a hard look in the mirror....
11 Nov, 2024
-
2 min read

Latest articles

Cartoon image of Cuomo and Adams running into each other with cars.
Adams and Cuomo Power Players Play Chicken With New York Elections
NYC Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are currently playing a game of chicken with each other – leveraging the city’s electoral system to pressure the other to quit the race. The question is: Who will blink first? Or… are they headed for a collision?...
14 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read
Open Primary NYC
5 Influential Forces in NYC that Threaten the Success of Open Primaries
New York City’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC) is considering a proposal to adopt a nonpartisan “Top Two” open primary system, which would allow the city’s 1.1 million independent voters to cast a ballot in primary elections they pay for....
14 Jul, 2025
-
13 min read
Tyson points at Trump with a marijuana leaf behind him.
Mike Tyson Calls Out Donald Trump to Make Good on Cannabis Rescheduling Promise
Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion known as “Iron Mike,” is calling on President Donald Trump to make good on a campaign promise to reclassify cannabis under federal law....
11 Jul, 2025
-
2 min read