In a huge blow to Utah Republicans, their proposed ballot initiative to repeal the state's anti-gerrymandering laws has failed to qualify for the ballot.
According to Deseret News, "The Republican-led effort to put Utah’s redistricting law back on the ballot fell below the required threshold in one state Senate district on Wednesday after a signature removal campaign by supporters of Proposition 4. This means that the repeal of Prop 4 will not appear on the ballot despite $4.35 million spent on professional signature gathering, involvement from Turning Point Action and an endorsement from President Donald Trump and his son, Donald Trump Jr."
Proposition 4, passed in 2018, set out rigorous fairness standards for how the congressional districts in Utah must be drawn, prohibiting one party from drawing lines to favor their own candidates.
Despite this, Utah Republicans passed a map in 2021 that chopped up heavily liberal Salt Lake County into several pieces, ensuring all four of the state's districts would elect Republicans. Voting rights groups sued over this, and state judges found they had violated Proposition 4. After Republicans attempted to pass another remedial map that still split Salt Lake County and had four GOP-leaning districts, the judge instead adopted a map that kept the county whole and had one Democratic district.
In response, the GOP launched a ballot petition that would give voters the choice to repeal Proposition 4 outright this fall — and from the outset, the process was accused of irregularities and unethical behavior. A number of college students alleged that signature collectors lied to them about what the petition was for, even suggesting it was about protecting Proposition 4 rather than repealing it.
Initially, Republicans appeared to have gathered enough signatures for the initiative to move forward. But last month, thousands of potentially fraudulent signatures were identified, throwing the whole project into doubt.
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