KEY POINTS
  • Rep. Jordan Teuscher introduced a bill that would require a runoff election if no primary candidate tops 50%.
  • Rep. Andrew Stoddard introduced a bill that would push political parties to abandon state nominating conventions.
  • SB54, which established a signature-gathering path to the primary ballot, was passed 10 years ago.

The passage of Utah’s dual primary qualification system continues to reverberate through the Legislature 10 years after going into effect.

This legislative session, two bills, one from each side of the aisle, are set to spark renewed debate over the long-term unintended consequences of the decade-old law, known as SB54.

Primary Election Amendments, HB231, introduced by House Rules Chair Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, would create a runoff election process to address the large number of signature-gathering candidates that sometimes vie in primaries for party nomination.

Candidate Nomination Procedures Amendments, HB232, introduced Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Sandy, would overhaul the state’s primary election process by pushing parties to abandon state nominating conventions in an attempt to limit the influence of partisan delegates.

These electoral reforms join nearly a dozen other election-related bills that have been introduced since the Legislature gaveled in on Tuesday.

But whereas most of these bills impact how voters cast their ballots, the legislation introduced by Teuscher and Stoddard would dramatically change how candidates get on the ballot in the first place.

State House Speaker Schultz, R-Hooper, said on Thursday he is not aware of there being any bills this year attempting to repeal SB54, as there have been in previous years.

Passed in 2014, SB54 preserved the state’s caucus-convention system by pairing it with an extremely high-threshold signature path to qualify for a direct primary.

A woman places a ballot into the container as voters turn out to cast their primary votes at the Salt Lake County Library in Sandy on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News

Double the primary elections?

Before SB54 became law, Utah voters could participate in primary elections only if state delegates failed to coalesce behind a candidate with 60%-70% of support during a state party convention.

In such cases, the top two vote-getters from the convention would face off in a primary election managed by the state open to all party members.

Since SB54 passed in 2014, Utahns have seen a large increase in the number of primary elections, as well as an increase in the number of candidates who qualify for primaries via signature gathering.

This has led to a number of high profile races in the deeply Republican state of Utah where the GOP primary nominee, and often the de facto general election victor, enters office after receiving a small plurality of support from their party.

In 2020, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox won the GOP nomination with 36.2% of the vote in a four-way race, with former Gov. Jon Huntsman receiving 35%. In 2024, Utah 3rd District Rep. Mike Kennedy won with 38.8% in a five-way race, and Sen. John Curtis won with 48.7% in a four-way race.

Some county commission races in recent years have seen candidates win with closer to 25% of the vote, according to Teuscher. This is what his bill seeks to resolve.

A voter approaches a ballot drop box during primary election voting held at the Lehi Public Safety Building in Lehi on Tuesday, June 25, 2024.

“It’s really just saying, ‘let’s ensure that whoever gets elected has a majority of the support,’” Teuscher said. “And they may not be your very first choice, but at some point, a majority of people voted for that person to represent them.”

Related
Lawmakers are about to vote on how you can vote. Here’s what to expect

If it became law, Teuscher’s bill would provide for a runoff election if no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote in a primary. The runoff would be conducted six weeks after the primary election between the top two vote-getters in the same manner as a typical primary election but with just two names on the ballot.

The bill carries a fiscal note of $100,000 in ongoing state funds for every even numbered year in which the Lieutenant Governor’s Office would be required to conduct a second round of primary elections.

Fiscal analysts estimated the election reform could cost counties as much as $2.7 million in ongoing funds every even numbered year if they are all required to repeat their primary election processes for a statewide runoff race, though Teuscher expects the true dollar figure to be “significantly smaller.”

Unlike past years, Teuscher said he has no plans to introduce a bill that would strengthen the convention system by making convention nominations binding if winners reach a high enough threshold of support.

Teuscher said he does not support a bill from Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful, that would drastically reduce the number of signatures a candidate seeking nomination of a qualified political party must receive to appear on a primary ballot.

But if such a bill were to pass, Teuscher said it would make runoff elections even more “crucial.”

Ending the influence of conventions?

Stoddard is unsure whether his 100-page election bill will exit Teuscher’s rules committee, but if it does, it would give lawmakers an opportunity to discuss whether the true legacy of SB54 has actually been to keep the caucus-convention system on life support as it becomes increasingly corrosive to Utah politics.

“What we’re seeing is a narrative being pushed by people who represent the more extreme views that our elections are rife with fraud, and I think that’s a product of our convention system because we have a group of people who largely are not representative of the majority,” Stoddard said. “So I think we need to change the approach we have, not only to elections, but to nominations, hence the extremely large bill.”

Stoddards bill would scrap SB54’s dual pathway primary process. Instead, political parties would be required to classify themselves as either a primary nominating party or a convention nominating party.

The first designation would allow parties to advance a signature-gathering nominee to the general election with party affiliation intact. The second designation would allow parties to advance a convention-winning nominee to the general election but without any indication of party affiliation.

Primary nominating parties could still hold state conventions to conduct party business but the results of a nominating vote would be purely symbolic and would not have the authority to place a candidate on the primary or general election ballot.

“The original goal for the bill was just to give our convention process less power,” Stoddard said.

Related
U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear Phil Lyman’s challenge of Utah primary system

The bill also aims to increase access to the ballot for candidates by cutting the signature thresholds in half for primary qualification — from 28,000 to 14,000 in statewide races, from 7,000 to 3,500 in congressional races, from 2,000 to 1,000 in state Senate races, and from 1,000 to 500 in state House races.

46
Comments

Stoddard is not optimistic that his bill will get the green light from his chamber’s Republican supermajority. Stoddard said he will consider it a win if his bill simply gets a committee hearing to broaden the conversation about election processes that are healthier for the state’s political environment.

Convention systems, whether run by Republicans or Democrats, attract a vocal minority that tend to lean toward uncompromising ideological extremes, Stoddard said.

Stoddard’s counterparts on the other side of the aisle understand this danger and the political pressure it puts on them, Stoddard said. If they could vote in secret, Stoddard believes, his bill would likely have a chance.

“Behind the scenes, I’ve gotten a ton of support from Republican colleagues,” Stoddard said. “It takes a high amount of political courage to speak out against a system that controls your political future.”

Join the Conversation
Looking for comments?
Find comments in their new home! Click the buttons at the top or within the article to view them — or use the button below for quick access.