Utah GOP passes 11th hour law to protect its pro-gerrymander ballot measure
In an eleventh-hour maneuver, Utah Republicans closed out the state legislative session by passing a measure aimed at making it more difficult for voters to remove their signatures from a petition supporting a ballot initiative to legalize partisan gerrymanders.
Gov. Spencer Cox (R) then signed it into law just hours later. The law went into effect immediately.
The new rules invalidate signature removals submitted using prepaid postage, which, in practice, means that Utahns who changed their mind about the ballot initiative will now have to pay for postage to remove their signatures.
The Utah GOP has been hellbent on repealing the state’s current ban on partisan gerrymandering ever since courts struck down its previous congressional map for violating the law and selected a map proposed by pro-voting plaintiffs. Under that new map, Democrats will likely flip one of the state’s four congressional districts in November.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/utah-gop-passes-11th-hour-law-to-protect-its-pro-gerrymander-ballot-measure/