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Some Democrats and left-leaning independents registered with the Republican party in order to vote in the primary election in June.
In the two months leading up to the 2020 Republican primary election, 105,000 people switched their voter registration, according to the state Elections Director Justin Lee. Some of those people were Democrats or left-leaning independents who wanted a say in the governor’s race, although it’s unclear how many. They argued that because Utah is so heavily Republican, the primary election essentially decides who will win statewide office.
Some Republicans criticized the practice last Spring, and now Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, is sponsoring a bill to try to prevent it from happening on the same scale again.