Better Boundaries launches campaign to disrupt GOP Prop 4 repeal

The nonprofit group behind Utah’s Proposition 4 redistricting law announced a campaign on Wednesday to encourage voters to remove their signatures from the Republican petition to repeal the law.

With 11 days to go before the signature submission deadline, Better Boundaries said it has sent thousands of letters to voters who signed on to the Utah GOP’s effort to reverse Prop 4 with another ballot initiative.

“Utahns should know exactly what they’re signing, and if a repeal effort can’t win on the facts, it shouldn’t try to win through misleading petition practices,” Better Boundaries executive director Elizabeth Rasmussen said in a statement.

Some Utah voters have said that signature gatherers are mischaracterizing what the ballot initiative would do. It would eliminate the state’s redistricting commission as well as rules for drawing congressional district maps.

Why remove signatures?

Utahns spoke clearly when they narrowly passed Prop 4 in 2018, according to Rasmussen, who said the successful initiative showed Utahns’ desire to prevent the GOP-controlled state Legislature from gerrymandering .

“We at Better Boundaries believe voters deserve transparency and honesty in the democratic process,” Rasmussen said. “When Utahns passed Proposition 4 in 2018, they were clear about what they wanted.”

The Better Boundaries letters provide voters with a form to request that their county clerk remove their names from what Better Boundaries labels “a pro-gerrymandering petition” to put Prop 4 on the November election ballot.

Voters have 90 days to remove their name from a petition if their signature was submitted before Dec. 1. They have 45 days to send a written request to their county clerk if their signature was submitted after Dec. 1.

The Better Boundaries signature removal campaign appears well-funded, with a fresh website, protectutahvoters.com, paid for by a political interest committee, Utahns Protecting Our Constitution.

Will GOP get the signatures?

This signature removal campaign could disrupt the GOP effort to repeal Prop 4.

The GOP — through its political interest committee, Utahns for Representative Government — has until Feb. 15 to submit 141,000 verified signatures to county clerks. Clerks have until March 7 to verify signatures.

Utah’s lieutenant governor has so far recorded 70,401 verified signatures — half of the required amount. Gatherers have 30 days to submit signature packets after they are started and clerks have 21 days to process them.

The signature removal campaign shows Better Boundaries is worried “an overwhelming number of Utahns are sick and tired of Prop 4, activist judges and the continued disregard of the Utah Constitution,” Utah GOP chair Rob Axson said.

“Every signature page in a petition book clearly states what is being signed, and every book contains a copy of the proposed language repealing Prop 4,” Axson said. “Utahns know how to read and know what they signed.”

Why GOP wants to repeal Prop 4

Axson launched the initiative in October, with the support of Sen. Mike Lee and Attorney General Derek Brown, after 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson used Prop 4 to throw out the state’s 2021 congressional map.

Gibson later implemented a map, submitted by nonprofit advocacy groups, intended to create a “Democratic-leaning district anchored in the northern portion of Salt Lake.” The map was never approved by elected lawmakers.

Sponsors of the initiative argue Prop 4 was never intended to usurp the Legislature’s constitutionally mandated authority to draw electoral boundaries. But it appears the law has enabled courts to do just that, they argue.

“Democrat aligned groups oppose our efforts to restore representative government because they know they cannot win elections in Utah,” Axson said. “Our organization will continue to pursue every possible strategy to preserve the voice of Utahns and protect Utah values.”

Over the past few weeks, the Prop 4 repeal has attracted attention from the height of GOP politics, gaining the endorsement of President Donald Trump and support from well-known activists Scott Presler and Turning Point Action.

Violence and misinformation?

As the GOP approaches its signature gathering deadline, violence toward signature gatherers has escalated, with multiple police reports over the past few weeks of stolen signature packets and physical assaults.

“After using violence to intimidate Utahns not to sign, they are now shifting tactics to trick and mislead voters,” Axson told the Deseret News in a statement.

Reports of misleading, or aggressive, tactics by signature gatherers have also increased. The Deseret News has received several complaints alleging signature gatherers sold the repeal as an effort to empower voters.

West Valley resident Shane Landon said signature gatherers at the Kearns rec center told him that by signing the petition he would help take power from the judicial system and return it to the people to stop gerrymandering.

“I looked up Prop 4, and it’s the exact opposite of what they just had me sign,” Landon told the Deseret News. “So they lied to me.”

New bill on signature gathering

On Tuesday, Utah lawmakers advanced a bill that would require signature gatherers to take a government training on what they must tell Utah voters, and would create an alternative signature packet that is more accessible.

“If they go through this, they would understand a lot better, and it would make it very clear what they’re allowed to do, what they’re not allowed to do,” said Rep. Paul Cutler, R-Centerville, who is the sponsor of the bill.

Lawmakers are also considering legislation to move signature gathering to a digital process, and to require paid signature removal gatherers to say that doing so could prevent the initiative from appearing on the ballot.