A second Utah Senate district that had barely cleared a GOP-backed drive to repeal Proposition 4 has now dropped below the minimum number of verified signatures, organizers of the signature-removal effort said Wednesday. The slip deepens doubts about whether the repeal can survive Utah’s strict geographic rules, even though the petition still shows more than 160,000 verified names statewide. The latest change hits the stretch of the west Salt Lake Valley where Kearns meets West Valley City.
Better Boundaries, the group leading the removal campaign, said Senate District 12 - which includes Kearns and parts of West Valley City - has now fallen under the required number of signatures. Senate District 15 already slipped below the line in late March, according to local reporting. As reported by KUTV, an updated tally from the lieutenant governor posted April 8 showed 162,111 verified signatures statewide, but the initiative still has to pass the district-by-district test. For background on how the repeal drive started, see Utah GOP Seeks to Repeal Prop 4, as per Hoodline.
How the threshold works
To qualify for the ballot, backers must clear both a statewide raw-signature test and a separate geographic test. The campaign needs roughly 141,000 valid signatures statewide, plus signatures from at least 8% of active voters in 26 of Utah’s 29 state Senate districts. That district-by-district hurdle means a petition can fail even if the overall statewide total looks healthy.
The Lt. Governor’s Office posts verified names as county clerks finish checking them, and signers get a rolling window to ask that their names be removed. For example, a name that was posted March 9 has until April 23 to be withdrawn, according to the state’s initiatives page on Vote.Utah.gov.
Legal fight over removal letters
The signature-removal push has sparked both courtroom battles and last-minute changes at the Legislature. Opponents of the removal mailers argue that Better Boundaries sent pre-paid, partially filled-out removal forms to people who had signed. Backers of the repeal responded by suing to stop some of those mailed removals from being counted, and lawmakers near the end of the session passed language in HB242 that clarifies pre-paid postage on removal statements may not be accepted in certain situations. Deseret News has detailed the lawsuits and the new rules.
What backers and opponents say
The executive director of Better Boundaries has cast the recent district-level drops as a kind of voter correction, arguing that residents are rethinking how their signatures were gathered. Utah GOP Chair Rob Axson has countered that the party still has serious concerns about how removals were solicited, telling the Associated Press that “the fight is not over, but just beginning.” Both camps say they will keep pressing their case as county clerks continue verification.
What happens next
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson must issue an official ruling by April 30 on whether the petition is sufficient or insufficient. In the meantime, county clerks are still processing and verifying removal requests. If more removals land in other Senate districts that were only barely above the threshold, the petition could fail the 26-district requirement before certification. That possibility has both sides working phones, doors and precinct lists right up to the deadline.
