The signatures of fifteen past Utah Bar Presidents ain't a half-bad touch either
There's encouraging news for supporters of Utah political nomination reform from the
Salt Lake Tribune this morning, as Robert Gehrke reports that the folks of
Count My Vote, who are hell-bent to replace the state’s current and decidedly undemocratic caucus/convention nomination process with a direct primary election procedure, have completed the next important procedural step in qualifying their Utah citizens initiative petition for general circulation, pursuant to
Title 20A Chapter 7 Section 202, which provides that once an application for an initiative has been submitted, the Lieutenant Governor reviews the measure. The application will be rejected if the measures is
"patently unconstitutional," "nonsensical," could not become law if passed, contains more than one subject, or does not clearly express the subject in its title.
Here are the key paragraphs from the
Salt Lake Tribune:
Count My Vote organizers delivered a letter to the lieutenant governor’s office signed by 15 past presidents of the Utah State Bar, vouching for the constitutionality of the group’s proposed election reform.
The letter and an accompanying 21-page legal memo state that the Count My Vote proposal of replacing the current caucus-and-convention system parties use to pick nominees with direct primaries is clearly constitutional and would address a "compelling" interest — increasing voter participation.
"We believe the initiative would not impose any burden … on party associational rights because parties would remain free to endorse favored candidates, select nominees without state input, and determine which voters participate in their primary elections," the letter states.
Read the full article here:
And here's a PDF copy of the above-referenced letter for our
WCF readers' own review:
Even upon casual reading it ought to be clear that this proposed citizens initiative petition does
"pass legal muster;" and the signatures of 15 past Utah Bar Presidents ain't a half-bad touch either,
wethinks.
What say you,
O Gentle Ones?
Time to get this show on the road,
don'tcha think?
