The switch to daylight saving time is coming this weekend, and a bill to keep Utah on standard time all year long was stopped Tuesday by the Senate.
The latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll shows Utahns support the bill to keep the state from changing its clocked twice a year. The poll was conducted by HarrisX started before the bill was stopped.
HB120, sponsored by Joseph Elison, R-Toquerville, passed through the House but then was halted in its Senate committee hearing.
According to KSL.com, the bill’s sponsor said that the bill was the most tracked bill of the session and most Utahns want to an end to having to change their clocks twice a year.
What do Utahns think of daylight saving time legislation?
The poll informed those answering about the bill and the changes lawmakers wanted to make and asked if they would support the action to get rid of daylight saving time.
The poll was conducted among 805 registered Utah voters from Feb. 18-25. The margin of error is +/- 3.5 percentage points. The bill’s progress was stopped on Feb. 19.
Eighty-one percent of registered voters said that they support the action from the Legislature, with 53% strongly supporting it and 29% somewhat supporting it.
The numbers were similar among both Republicans and Democrats with 54% of Republicans in support of the legislation and 50% of Democrats.
The state of daylight saving legislation
Currently, the Uniform Time Act of 1966 gives states the option to stop observing daylight saving time and stick to standard time year-round. But, the law does not allow states to observe only daylight saving time year round, as previously reported by the Deseret News.
In 2020, Utah passed a law to put the state on Mountain Daylight Time year round, when the federal government allows it or if multiple neighboring states also adopt the policy.
Adopting permanent standard time through HB120 would have been the only way to immediately eliminate changing clocks, per KSL.com.
Daylight saving time starts on March 9 and the switch back to standard time will be on Nov. 2.