Utah GOP says they have enough signatures for pro-gerrymander ballot measure

In an unexpected development, Utah Republicans announced over the weekend that they had submitted enough signatures to put a pro-gerrymander measure on the ballot.

Just days earlier, the state GOP was falling far short of the necessary number of signatures amid allegations of fraud and deceit by paid canvassers. It remains to be seen whether their latest submissions will clear the verification process, which is set to be completed by March 9.

The GOP turned in more than 200,000 signatures ahead of the Sunday deadline, according to Rob Axson, chair of the Utah Republican Party and a leader of Utahns for Representative Government, which has organized a campaign to repeal Proposition 4, a 2018 voter-approved constitutional amendment that bans partisan gerrymandering.

The GOP’s announcement came just days after the group sought an extension on the signature deadline – a request the Utah Supreme Court quickly denied. 

Republicans have been hellbent on repealing Utah’s anti-gerrymandering rules ever since a judge last year struck down their 2021 congressional map, clearing the way for Democrats to potentially win one of the state’s four congressional seats in 2026.

The GOP needed to gather more than 140,000 signatures by this weekend in order to get their repeal measure on the ballot. They also must meet a minimum signature threshold in at least 26 out of 29 state senate districts. 

Just over 94,000 signatures had been verified as of Feb. 17, according to a state list.

Additionally, more than 2,000 Utahns have requested to remove their signatures from the petition, which local officials described as an unprecedented amount of pushback after some voters said they were misled into signing it. 

Republicans reportedly responded by sending out a mass text to Utahns urging them to ignore efforts to remove signatures and accusing their opponents of being “paid canvassers” working for “a firm under criminal investigation in another state.”

Ironically, the allegation came after a Utah county clerk’s office identified hundreds of fraudulent signatures turned in by Republicans – a finding that led Utahns for Representative Government to terminate its contract with Patriot Grassroots, the national MAGA firm it hired to conduct paid signature gathering.

The speed with which Utah Republicans have gathered the needed signatures, despite requesting an extension just days earlier, has raised eyebrows in some quarters.

“You don’t file for an extension Wednesday evening before a Sunday deadline if you think you already have the signatures,” a user on X wrote to Brad Edison Bonham, a member of the Utah Republican Party leadership.

“And yet, that’s exactly what we did, while staring at boxes full of already completed signature packets,” Bonham responded.