Salt Lake City, UT – District Court Judge Laura Scott ruled that Constitutional Amendment A is void this afternoon, after legislative defendants conceded they did not follow constitutional publication requirements. It will remain on the ballot but no votes will count.
Chase Thomas, Senior Policy Advisor for Alliance for a Better Utah, issued the following statement:
“We are thrilled by this ruling, it’s a win for Utahns across the state and adheres to what the Utah Constitution has set forth. The legislature did not meet the requirements in the constitution and despite their rhetoric about wanting to put the question before the people of Utah for Amendments A & D, they did not do their due diligence to ensure voters were sufficiently informed. Legislators would do well to read the constitution thoroughly before seeking to change it.”
“Although the court didn’t touch on the ballot language in their decision, we still believe that transferring the responsibility for writing the ballot language from impartial attorneys to biased lawmakers was clearly a mistake,” says Thomas. “Legislators will always have a conflict of interest, and we’ve seen the result of that with the slanted language of Amendments A & D this year. Having the Speaker of the House and the Senate President write the language ultimately only harms the voters, not helps them.”