Salt Lake City — Despite majority support for the electoral reforms enacted through the Count My Vote Compromise, some Utah legislators are continuing their attempts to gut the compromise.
The latest attempt, HB313, was heard in the House Government Operations Committee today. The bill would allow party bosses to override the will of the people and choose their party’s candidate in the event no candidate garners more than 50 percent of the vote — even if there is a clear winner.
Voting in favor of the bill were Fred Cox, Brad Daw, Jack Draxler, Keith Grover, Merrill Nelson, Lee Perry, Val Peterson and Dean Sanpei. Of those, Draxler, Peterson and Nelson had all voted in favor of SB54 last year.
Maryann Martindale, executive director of Alliance for a Better UTAH, has released the following statement:
“In a throwback to Tammany Hall and the days of machine politics, members of the Utah legislature are again attempting to thwart the will of the people by gutting the Count My Vote Compromise. Their newest attempt would ignore the will of the voters and hand the power back to party bosses to decide who will be the Democratic or Republican candidate for the general election. Legislators should vote this bill down once it gets to the House Floor.”
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Contact: Maryann Martindale
Executive Director, Alliance for a Better UTAH
801.557.1532 | maryann@betterutah.org