At Least 4 Utah Cities May Experiment With a New Kind of Voting System

Looks like a pretty good idea to us

Via Fox News 13, we'll highlight a very interesting idea:

SALT LAKE CITY -- A deadline is approaching for cities across Utah to decide if they want to experiment with ranked choice voting.
The Utah Lt. Governor's Office tells FOX 13 that West Jordan, Vineyard, Lehi and Salem have stated an intent to try it out. The deadline for cities to opt in is Dec. 31.
Ranked choice voting is being implemented in the 2019 municipal election cycle as a pilot project passed by the Utah State Legislature. Instead of voting on candidates as "hot or not," you rank them from "first to worst."

Read up Peeps, to find out how ranked choice voting works:

• At least 4 Utah cities may experiment with a new kind of voting system

Looks like a pretty good idea to us. So what say our Gentle Readers about this?

Count My Vote Launches Initiative to Dump Utah's "Quaint" Caucus/Convention Nomination System - Updated

Democracy in Utah - What a concept

"We're confident people want a change." "We're the only state where a handful of people, just a handful of people, routinely choose" candidates.

Former Governor Mike Leavitt - Deseret News
Count My Vote launches initiative to change Utah's primary elections
September 18, 2013

"In the process, as it exists, every [election] year there are legislators who get elected by 30 or 40 people and there are literally thousands of people who don’t get a chance to have their voice heard."

Former Governor Mike Leavitt - Salt Lake Tribune
Count My Vote launches effort for direct Utah primaries
September 18, 2013

"The current path to get on the ballot through the caucus and convention system ensures that only the most narrow ideological selection of candidates is available to Utah voters. Those politicians have to run on an extremely limited ideological platform to appeal to the extremes."

Bryan Schott - UtahPolicy.Com
Bryan Schott's Political BS - Held Hostage by the Caucuses
August 29, 2013

On the heels of the rejection of serious Utah election nomination reform  by the Utah Republican Party apparatus, Both the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune report that "[o]rganizers of the Count My Vote movement filed paperwork with the lieutenant governor’s office Wednesday, officially launching their bid to replace Utah’s system of nominating candidates with a direct primary system":

• Count My Vote launches initiative to change Utah's primary elections
• Count My Vote launches effort for direct Utah primaries

Needless to say, right-wing wacko Utah power brokers, such as the Utah Eagle Forum, are absolutely apoplectic over this development:

"Why do you think these extreme elements want to hold on to the current system? Because it gives their issues a stronger voice. Moving to a primary to nominate candidates means more broad-based campaigning and appealing to a larger slice of the electorate," says UtahPolicy.Com's Bryan Schott:

• Bryan Schott's Political BS - Held Hostage by the Caucuses

We'll be standing by awaiting details of the upcoming petition drive of course, folks.  When the petitions are available for distribution and your eager signatures, our ever-gentle WCF Readers will certainly be the first to know.

Democracy in Utah.  What a concept.

Update 9/19/13 7:26 a.m.: As a bellwether indicator of just how stressed-out these right wing Utah wackos are, at the prospect of turning the political nomination process over to the broad-based Utah electorate, we find that no fewer than four "ubiquitous," cut/paste, anti-democracy, pro-caucus status quo "talking points" have already been "lodged" in our comments section below.

Update 9/20/13 9:36 a.m.:  Via Bob Bernick: "Regular ole citizens should love the CMV petition. For it gives them a chance to recapture the nominating process of their particular political parties. In a one-party dominate state like Utah, the more people who get the chance to vote on a GOP candidate the better. It is as simple as that":

• Bob Bernick's Notebook: Cut off the Head and the Body Will Die

Both the D-News and the Standard Offer Their Editorial Blessings to Utah Political Candidate Nomination Reform

It's great to know that both the D-News and the Standard will beating the drum right alongside us, innit?

No one is arguing that a candidate shouldn’t have a right to get nominated at a state convention, but it needs to be with an overwhelming majority of state delegates. Sixty percent is not an overwhelming majority. A generation ago, state Republicans required 70 percent of delegates’ support to avoid a primary. It’s a pity that GOP delegates couldn’t move the nominating bar closer to that percentage. In an ironic twist, it may soon require voters to correct that.

Standard-Examiner Editorial
Our View: Caucus reform moves closer
May 21, 2013

At the convention, one delegate summed up the opposition to caucus reform by saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." His opinion seems to reflect that of the delegate majority, who wield a tremendous amount of power in selecting GOP candidates. Apparently, they feel a system that grants them such influence at the expense of the input of thousands of primary voters is one that needs to be protected rather than fixed.

Deseret News Editorial
In our opinion: Reforms are needed
May 23, 2013

Not so easy as you might think.

As a follow-up to our Sunday Weber County Forum article, in which we discussed the dissapointing results of Saturday's Utah State Republican Party Convention, during which "a staunch 55% of 'nearly 2600' Utah GOP convention delegates among other things, drew a line in the sand, refused to 'cave to threats,' and 'passed up' the golden opportunity to usher the Utah GOP's nominating process (albeit kicking and screaming), straight into the the 21st Century," we'll note that it appears the political battle lines are already being drawn a short five days post-convention, as both the Standard-Examiner and the Deseret News have carried strong editorials over the past several days, offering their editorial blessings to the percipient Count My Vote Utah petition drive, which aims to wrest control of the Utah political nominating process from Utah's often extremist caucus-elected convention delegates and re-deliver it to Utah's presently disenfranchised "thousands of primary voters" (where it actually belongs, we'll add). It's also significant, we believe, that we're already witnessing two of Northern Utah's more politically conservative news organizations lining up on the side of voter-driven Utah political nomination process reform:

• Our View: Caucus reform moves closer
• In our opinion: Reforms are needed

We'll be standing by awaiting word on where and how Utah Lumpenitizens can participate in the Count My Vote Utah political reform movement, by passing around petitions and/or "affixing your signatures thereto."

In the meantime, however, it's great to know that both the D-News and the Standard will beating the drum right alongside us, innit?

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah GOP Again Rejects Reforms to Nomination Process

Thousands of Republican faithful reject candidate-selection reforms, install first "loan shark" leader in history

The Salt Lake Tribune this morning provides the latest news regarding the results of Saturday's Utah State Republican Party Convention, where a staunch 55% of "nearly 2600" Utah GOP convention delegates among other things, drew a line in the sand, refused to "cave to threats," and "passed up" the golden opportunity to usher the Utah GOP's nominating process (albeit kicking and screaming), straight into the the 21st Century:

The Utah Republican Party again rejected a series of reforms to the party’s nominating process in a move that could trigger a threatened ballot initiative to overhaul the system for picking candidates.
Count My Vote, a group made up of several prominent Republicans, including former Gov. Mike Leavitt, argued the current system puts too much power in the hands of a small group of delegates, depresses turnout and leads to radicalization of Utah politics.
The group had said if changes weren’t made, it would push for a ballot initiative — likely by gathering signatures on a petition — that would give candidates an alternative to going through the delegate process to get into a primary election.
At the Utah Republican Party State Convention on Saturday, GOP loyalists once again rejected any reform proposals, in particular a measure that would have required a candidate to get more than two-thirds of the delegate vote to avoid a primary.

Read up, folks:

• Utah GOP again rejects reforms to nomination process

Looks like Count My Vote is already geared-up to move forward  with their threatened citizen initiative petition drive. "Count My Vote leaders will meet Monday to discuss their next step," says CMV spokesman Rich McKeown. For more information on this Utah GOP-insurgent group, check out their website, which is already up and running:

• Count My Vote Utah

And as a possible indicator of just how "serious" this battle has become, check out this Count My Vote Utah "spoof" website:

• Count My Vote Spoof Website

Yep.  Utah GOP nominating process reform opponents are "pulling out all the stops."

We'll be standing by awaiting news of the inevitable petition drive of course, folks.  When the petitions are available for distribution and your eager signatures, our ever-gentle WCF Readers will certainly be the first to know.

Utah's new "State Fish?"

In another mind-boggling 2013 convention wrinkle, Saturday's assembled Utah GOP delegate throng also took the unprecedented step of handing over the reins of Utah's ruling political party (no we are not making this up) to a prominent Utah loan shark.  Yup.  That's right.  Not only is newly-elected Utah GOP State Party Chair James Evans "the first African-American to serve in the position," but he's also the proud owner and proprietor of Utah's "Checkline chain of payday lending stores," thereby prompting one sharp and alert Trib reader/commenter to query whether "republicans [might] want to make [the] loanshark the state fish."

Those were the convention "high-points," O Gentle Ones.

Or perhaps we should label them the low-points? 

Salt Lake Tribune Guest Editorial: Utah’s Archaic Convention System

Duelling editorials: What about abolishing Utah's "quirky," one-of-a-kind caucus/convention candidate nomination system and substituting a direct primary nomination system?

Can the caucus system improve? Absolutely. The problem is not the caucus system, it is low constituent participation. I agree with State Republic Chairman Thomas Wright, who said, “Let’s spend ... time and energy educating people ... and encouraging them to participate.”

Greg Erickson - Salt Lake Tribune
Keep Utah’s caucus system
December 10, 2011

Utah voters deserve to collectively decide who should be on the ballot. The direct primary nomination process works with enormous success in the election of municipal officers, and the sky has not fallen, nor are candidates bankrupted.
It’s high time to extend that system to legislative and statewide offices.

David R. Irvine - Salt Lake Tribune
Utah’s archaic convention system
December 17, 2011

Chewy Salt Lake Tribune guest Op-ed this morning from Salt Lake City-based attorney and former Utah House Representative and also former Davis County Republican Party Chair David R. Irvine, who responds to this earlier SL-Tribune Op-ed piece, and argues instead for abolition of Utah's "quirky," one-of-a-kind caucus/convention candidate nomination system and the substitution of a direct primary nomination system:

• Utah’s archaic convention system

So what about it, Weber County Forum political wonks?

Is Utah District 23 Republican Senate candidate Greg Ericksen correct in his assertion that Utah's current caucus/convention nomination should be preserved, inasmuch as convention delegates (and precinct caucus attendees) are better prepared and more engaged, intelligent and in tune with the issues than regular citizens?

Or on the other hand does Mr. Irvine truly "nail it," when he points out that the present system is merely "a continuing testament to the corrupting influence of unregulated money in our election process and the desire of incumbent legislators to make their re-election as easy as possible by providing a very effective way to kill off would-be opponents?"

Moreover, can Utah's paltry 15 percent participation by eligible voters in Utah’s "closed" primary elections (even on those rare occasions where such primaries are held) be explained by the fact that savvy Utah voters know the system has already been rigged in the party conventions?

Would the adoption of a direct primary nomination system, such as is successfully used in Utah local and municipal elections, significantly increase voter participation in state and federal elections?

So what say our Gentle Readers about all this?

The world-wide blogosphere is sitting on the edge of its seat, eagerly awaiting your always-adept utterances.

Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Election Reformers Pull back From 2012 Target

Added Bonus: Year end greetings and and a status update from our friends at Utahns for Ethical Government

Late last month we breathlessly linked this Bob Bernick story and reported that "there's now a movement afoot to alter the rules regarding the nomination process in Utah, a movement which would avoid the predictable intransigence of the Utah Legislature altogether, and bring Utah into conformity with other "caucus/primary" nomination states through a more "grass roots" oriented means."

According to this morning's hot-off-the-press Salt Lake Tribune story, our enthusiasm may have been a mite hasty, as the Trib is now reporting that the "push to change Utah’s nominating process... is being put on hold for now, but backers say it could be back in 2014.":

• Utah election reformers pull back from 2012 target

The University of Utah's Kirk Jowers, provides the gist:

Kirk Jowers, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, said his group remains convinced that something needs to be done to boost Utah’s voter participation, and that changing Utah’s unique convention system for nominating candidates could do that.

But looming deadlines and tough standards to get on the ballot make it difficult to get the ballot initiative before voters in the coming election year.

“It seems the most prudent course is to give ourselves enough time to see if the Legislature can take some actions to help our state get back to where it should be” in terms of voter participation, Jowers said. “If not, we’ll obviously keep all options open for 2014.”

As we said in out earlier article on this topic, "We'll be standing by. This one will be fun [and interesting] to watch."

Added Bonus: And speaking of citizen-driven ballot measures, here's a link from our friends at Utahns for Ethical Government, the last grassroots group to successfully engineer a statewide citizen initiative petition drive to place grass-roots oriented legislation on Utah ballots:

• Holiday Wishes and Year-End UEG Update

Gotta add that we're pleased to observe that the folks at UEG and Jowers' Alliance for Good Government organization seem to be cooperatively pulling in tandem.

Bob Bernick's Notebook: Utah's Nominating System and Reforming the Electoral College

Daunting though the task may be, there does seem to be an avenue for bringing a more populist form of "democracy" to the Utah political nomination process

Interesting Bob Bernick Utah Pulse online morning column. Among other items, Bernick focuses on a recently published report from The Utah Foundation, a non-partisan public policy research organization, which "found that Utah stands alone among the 50 states in that a sitting officeholder can be removed from office by being denied his/her party’s nomination in a state or county party convention."

"In my long years as a political reporter in this state I had heard this before. But this is the first time I’ve seen the scholarly research that proves it," Bernick adds.

Noting two instances where relatively popular Utah incumbents (Olene Walker & Bob Bennett) were summarily given the old heave ho in recent GOP nominating conventions, Bernick muses about Utah’s "unique convention/primary candidate nomination process":

Still, it must be said, Utah is the only state where an incumbent – and certainly in the case of Walker, a very popular incumbent – can be removed from office by less than 3,000 state delegates. And that just does not seem right.

Click the link below to read what we'll label a "quite chewy" article:

• Bob Bernick's Notebook: Utah's Nominating System and Reforming the Electoral College

And here's the really interesting part. Bernick reports that there's now a movement afoot to alter the rules regarding the nomination process in Utah, a movement which would avoid the predictable intransigence of the Utah Legislature altogether, and bring Utah into conformity with other "caucus/primary" nomination states through a more "grass roots" oriented means:

There is a group which labels themselves “mainstream conservatives” that are considering trying to provide an alternative route to the political party primary ballots.

The group, which includes UtahPolicy owner/publisher LaVarr Webb, former Gov. Mike Leavitt, and Hinckley Institute of Politics director Kirk Jowers, among others, is thinking of running a citizen initiative petition in 2012 which would allow a party member who gathers 2 percent of the voter signatures from the last general election to put his name on the primary ballot.

That petition route is used by other convention/primary states, as found in the Utah Foundation report.

Yeah, we know that enacting legislation through Utah's constitutionally guaranteed (yet legislatively emasculated) citizens initiative process is no easy chore. Nevertheless, opponents of school vouchers used the initiative process to enact one important piece of anti-crony-capitalist citizen legislation in 2007; and Utahns for Ethical Government 1n 2010 successfully gathered the requisite number of signatures to place their own grass roots legislation on the ballot in time for the 2012 election. Daunting though the task may be, there does seem to be an avenue for bringing a more populist form of "democracy" to the Utah political nomination process.

We'll be standing by. This one will be fun to watch.

So who wants to throw in their own 2¢?