Utah lawmakers want voters to give them the power to change ballot measures once they’ve passed

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah’s Republican-led Legislature meets Wednesday to decide whether to ask voters in November to give up some of their rights to lawmakers who want the ability to change state ballots after they are passed.

Frustrated by a recent ruling by the state Supreme Courtlawmakers called a special session aimed at amending Utah’s constitution to give themselves power over citizen initiatives that the state’s highest court said they currently do not have. The Legislature used its emergency powers, which are broadly worded, to hold the session.

If the amendment passes and is approved by a majority of Utah voters this fall, it would give lawmakers the constitutional authority to rewrite voter-approved ballot measures at their discretion or repeal them entirely.

The proposal would also allow lawmakers to use their new power to pursue initiatives from previous election cycles, including the redistricting measure that prompted the state Supreme Court lawsuit that limited the Legislature’s powers.

Utah voters passed a ballot measure in 2018 that created an independent commission to redraw electoral districts every decade and send recommendations to the Legislature, which can approve the maps or draw its own. The measure also prohibited drawing district boundaries to protect incumbents or favor a political party — language that the Legislature tried to scrap in 2020 and replace with looser provisions.

Voting rights groups have filed a lawsuit after lawmakers ignored a congressional map drawn by the committee and one of their own which divided liberal Salt Lake County between four congressional districtsall of whom have since been elected Republicans by large majorities.

Last month, all five Republican-appointed state Supreme Court justices sided with opponents who argued that the Republican supermajority undermined the will of voters when it amended the referendum bill that banned partisan voting laws.

Utah’s Constitution gives significant weight to statewide ballot initiatives, which, if passed, become laws equivalent to those passed by the Legislature. Lawmakers currently may not amend laws passed by ballot initiatives except to strengthen them without impairing them or to advance a compelling governmental interest, the Supreme Court ruled.

Now the legislature is trying to circumvent that ruling by expanding its constitutional powers, but voters have the final say.

Legislative Democrats have criticized the move as a “power grab,” while Republican legislative leaders, Senate President Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz, have argued that it is dangerous to have certain laws on the books that cannot be significantly changed.

Utah isn’t the only place where lawmakers have sought the power to overturn ballot measures — at least under certain circumstances. Changes in the political mapping process have prompted such efforts in several states.

Missouri voters approved a new redistricting process in 2018 — the same year as Utah. Lawmakers promptly put a new amendment on the ballot to undo some of the key elementsand in 2020, voters approved the new version.

In 2022, Arizona lawmakers put a bill on the ballot that would allow them to amend or repeal voter-approved measures in their entirety if part of them is found unconstitutional or illegal by the state or federal Supreme Court. Voters rejected it.

This year, an advocacy group has secured a spot on the mood in ohio for a measure that would establish a new commission to draw legislative and congressional maps. Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, twice objected to the language of the ballot measure.

A lower court in Utah will also revisit the process for redrawing the state’s congressional districts following the Supreme Court ruling, but the current boundaries will remain in place. this election cycle.