- Rep. Ryan Wilcox introduced a bill that would create a committee of five county clerks to appoint a state elections director.
- Policymakers on both sides of the aisle questioned whether the proposal would eliminate the perception of a conflict of interests.
- Utah is one of only two states that gives election oversight responsibilities to the lieutenant governor.
One Utah lawmaker wants the governor’s running mate out of the election oversight business.
Rep. Ryan Wilcox, R-Ogden, unveiled his second attempt at overhauling the state election office on Thursday.
But his aim to eliminate a perceived conflict of interest has been met with bipartisan pushback as some argue his proposal looks more like a “solution in search of a problem” and others contend it could make the problem worse.
The bill, HB369, would transfer all election responsibilities from the Lieutenant Governor’s Office to a newly created elections office managed by an appointed director.
Under Wilcox’s proposed legislation, the state elections director would be selected through a two-step process.
First, the governor would choose two of Utah’s 29 clerks, the Senate president would choose one, the House speaker would choose one and the state auditor would choose one, to serve on an appointing committee for a four-year term.
Second, the five-member appointing committee would appoint, via majority vote, a state elections director who is familiar with election law, experienced with Utah’s election system, skilled in management, not affiliated with a political party and not holding or pursuing elective office.
The bill would replace instances of “lieutenant governor” in Utah election code with “office director.” The director would be appointed or reappointed every four years after an appointing committee is selected.
Wilcox said that putting more distance between the state’s chief election official and the ballot box will remove the perception of a conflict of interest.
“We wouldn’t be running the bill if there wasn’t an appetite for it,” Wilcox told the Deseret News. “We heard that across the board all year, that we needed to at the very least remove the perception of that problem with regulating your own race.”
In 2024, Wilcox introduced a similar bill that would have required Utah’s statewide elected officials and legislative leaders to directly appoint the director of a new state elections office.
Wilcox put the bill on ice almost immediately after coming to an agreement with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox to continue working on it between sessions.
But the extra time appears not to have created any additional consensus around Wilcox’s proposal.
Do Utahns want a new election office?
On Friday, Majority Assistant Whip Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, said HB369 took “an unusual” and ineffective approach to addressing voter distrust.
“The governance issue is based on a perception there’s a conflict of interest. And right now, I’m not convinced that we’re fixing the conflict of interest. We might be making it worse,” McKell said.
McKell pointed to a Sutherland Institute poll conducted in November that found that three-quarters of Utah voters prefer the person who oversees elections to be elected.
The poll found that 45% of voters said their confidence in election integrity would decrease if the state director overseeing elections was appointed instead of elected; 15% said the change would increase their confidence.
Another 35% of voters said that removing election oversight from the Lieutenant Governor’s Office would make them less confident in election results; 27% said it would make them more confident.
Wilcox discounted McKell’s reference to the poll because, he said, poll results can be biased based on how questions are framed.
Wilcox said he has heard from countless constituents over the last election cycle that the Legislature must prohibit the state’s top election official from overseeing their own elections.
“Across the country, people are losing faith in our elections,” Wilcox said. “You reduce the potential for any problems, specifically by having the five that oversee it, instead of one person, and certainly not directly managing your own.”
Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson has been a strong proponent of removing election oversight from the lieutenant governor.
Davidson shares Wilcox’s concern that bundling state election oversight with gubernatorial contests can be problematic, particularly when the person responsible for overseeing elections is a running mate.
But he doesn’t think Wilcox’s solution is much better.
“I would still rather see a secretary of state that’s answerable to the voters, rather than a director that’s answerable to state politicians,” Davidson said.
What does the lieutenant governor do?
The Lieutenant Governor’s Office oversees elections in the state by providing guidance to county clerks, enforcing election law and participating in the certification of multicounty elections.
The Lieutenant Governor’s Office does not administer any elections or count any ballots.
All election administration is conducted by county clerks, who are directly elected in partisan races.
The Utah Legislature created the office of lieutenant governor in 1976 to replace the secretary of state position.
Utah and Alaska are the only states in the country where the role of chief election official is held by a lieutenant governor.
In 33 states, the chief election official is elected. In the remaining 17 states, and the District of Columbia, the chief election official is appointed by the governor, state legislature or a board or commission.
Wilcox confirmed that his bill is not modeled after a process used by another state.
Despite Utah being an outlier, Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake City, defended the role of the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Friday.
Escamilla told reporters that her caucus supports the current system and questions the value of Wilcox’s proposal.
“I don’t know that having this more convoluted process makes much sense,” Escamilla said. “I think we have good statute and a good system, we just need to make sure that we’re making people accountable for their actions.”
Taylor Morgan, of Morgan & May Public Affairs and an expert on Utah elections, said concerns over conflicts of interest in the Lieutenant Governor’s Office come from misunderstandings over the lieutenant governor’s role fueled by irresponsible rhetoric from losing candidates.
“The perceived political conflicts of interest are manufactured. They are not real. These are based on false claims of a former Republican gubernatorial candidate,” Morgan said.
Morgan called the current lieutenant governor model “the most elegant, best solution” and called Wilcox’s proposal “a solution in search of a problem that would actually create serious problems that don’t currently exist.”
As it is currently written, HB369 would allow some county clerks to “choose their own boss,” Morgan said. “That’s never a good management scenario in any business, but even worse in government.”