Republican Candidates Could Be Left Off The Ballot In Utah This Year

Republicans may not appear on the ballot in Utah this year because of a change in the bylaws of the state’s GOP State Central Committee.

The change to the party’s rules disallows candidates to run as a Republican in some races if they gathered signatures to qualify to be on the ballot. Proponents of the rule change argue signature gathering weakens the influence of state delegates and interferes with the Party’s right to choose its nominees.

The rule, however, runs afoul of state law on the grounds the Utah GOP filed to operate as a “qualified political party” and as such, the law requires the party to accept candidates who gather signatures.

Lawmakers attempted to pass a fix-it bill that would allow the GOP to kick out candidates who gathered signatures and its status as a qualifying political party maintained. But while it passed the House of Representatives, the state Senate took no action on the issue before it expired at midnight on Thursday.

Republican Rep. Mike McKell, a sponsor of the fix-it bill, HB 485, admits the state GOP broke the law by making the change.

“It’s clear they [Central Committee members] made an effort to break the law with their bylaw change,” McKell said, which could lead to lawsuits to revoke the GOP’s qualified political party status. That, in turn, could decertify the party, or lead it to be declared a “registered political party,” which under law allows only those candidates who gather signatures to appear on the ballot.

McKell’s bill sought to solve problems by making clear that once a party files as a qualified political party, the party has no power to change midstream in an election cycle.

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