Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson recently announced Utah Elections Director Justin Lee will be stepping down. It’s a position that has received a lot of attention over the past year as some people have questioned the validity of the 2020 presidential results.
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| Updated: 10:35 p.m.
Afraid that “party raiding” is interfering with Republicans’ selection of nominees in primary elections, the Utah Senate gave the final legislative stamp of approval to a bill limiting when voters can change their party affiliation.
Republican senators voted 22-3 mostly along party lines Wednesday to pass HB197, which would prevent a voter from switching parties for nearly three months ahead of a primary election. If a voter decides to change party registration after March 31 of an election year, that change wouldn’t become effective until after the late June primary.
Three Democrats present voted no and two others were absent. Sen. Gene Davis, D-Salt Lake City, was the only member of the minority to vote for the bill.
Separately, a bill that would clarify the use of nicknames on the ballot failed.
(Trent Nelson | Tribune file photo) Ballots are sorted at the Salt Lake County offices in Salt Lake City on Nov. 4, 2020. Utah state senators voted Thursday to make it harder for voters to switch parties.
| Feb. 26, 2021, 12:33 a.m.
The bill, which passed with a 19-6 vote, would prevent affiliation changes after March 31 in an election year. If a voter modified their registration after that date, it would not go into effect until after the primary election in June.
The effort comes after tens of thousands of Utah voters became Republicans ahead of last June’s primary election in order to cast a vote in the hotly-contested GOP primary for governor. And its practical effect would be to lock last-minute switchers out of those primaries, which allow only registered Republicans to cast a ballot.