Salt Lake Tribune: Count My Vote Leaders Strike Deal to End Ballot Drive - Updated

Extremely bad news for those of us who'd hoped to completely eliminate Utah's quirky caucus/convention system, although we'll "hold our editorial fire" until full details have been fully fleshed out.

The Spirit of Compromise

There's a stunning development in the Count My Vote citizens initiative matter, as the Salt Lake Tribune reports that CMV organizers have cut a "compromise" deal with State Senator Curt Bramble, which would preserve the current caucus/convention system, but also provide a parallel path to nomination for candidates who choose to bypass  the current caucus/convention nomination process. Here's the lede:

Organizers of the Count My Vote initiative struck a deal Friday with legislators to pull the plug on an initiative to overhaul Utah’s nominating system after being assured candidates would be given a new path to the primary ballot without going through party caucuses and conventions.

The group, which had spent more than $1 million gathering 100,000-plus signatures on a voter initiative aimed at instituting direct primaries to nominate candidates, notified supporters and volunteers Friday night in a conference call that it would abandon the effort once the compromise is signed into law.

Read the full story, folks:

• Count My Vote leaders strike deal to end ballot drive (Cached Copy pdf)

"The [CMV] group has planned a news conference at the Capitol for 11 a.m. Staurday [this morning] to formally announce details of the deal," the Trib's Robert Gehrke reports.

Needless to say, this is extremely bad news for those of us who'd hoped to completely eliminate Utah's quirky caucus/convention system, but we'll refrain from editorializing on this topic until full details of this plan have been fully fleshed out.

Keep your eyes on this space as the situation develops, O Gentle Ones... 

Update 3/1/14 11:41 a.m.:  Oops. Looks like the above-mentioned "deal" has fallen through, which obviously won't break the hearts of CMV petition signators who'd like to see the Eagle Forum-driven Utah caucus nomination system wiped off the face of the earth. 

Here's the suddenly revised version of the above-linked Trib story

• Deal to end Count My Vote initiative collapses

We'll whole-heartedly issue a "shabby journalism thumbs-down" to the Trib this morning, by the way, due to their extreme laziness in failing to post a new Gehrke story on this latest development, rather than amending the Trib's earlier-posted article.

Update 3/3/14 4:47 a.m.: Via the Trib:  "An on-again, off-again deal between organizers of the Count My Vote ballot initiative and state legislators is back on, after a false start, a cancelled news conference and a day of negotiations Saturday. In the end, the deal struck to overhaul Utah’s system of nominating candidates is much the same as it stood Friday night: Count My Vote will get a system where candidates for office could gather signatures to get on a primary ballot, rather than going through the parties’ caucuses and conventions":

• It’s back on: Legislators, Count My Vote renew deal on election reform