Salt Lake Tribune
Besides the “whodunnit” suspense surrounding the alleged forgery of Utah Supreme Court Justice Christine Durham’s name on a ballot initiative petition for an ethics reform law, unanswered questions include “who knew what” and “when did they know it.”
Just a few days before a Supreme Court hearing on issues to determine whether signatures should be allowed to count to get the initiative on the ballot, the Utah Attorney General’s Office filed a motion to have Durham recused because she had signed the petition.
In action on two bills about elections on Tuesday, the Senate passed one to make it tougher for voter initiatives to appear on ballots ”” and killed another that would have allowed candidates to receive nominations from more than one party. The Senate voted 26-1 to pass SB165 by Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, and sent it to the House. It would prohibit using electronic signatures on websites to help qualify a candidate, party or referendum for the ballot. It also would base the number of signatures needed to get an initiative on the ballot on the number of votes cast for president in the last election, instead of those cast for governor ”” essentially requiring more signatures.
Gov. Gary Herbert met for the first time Thursday with backers of a legislative ethics reform initiative, expressing support for their goals, but not retracting his previously announced opposition to the proposed ballot measure. Herbert said the issue deserves further study and debate. “We’d like a piece of legislation we can all salute,” the governor said. The governor last week said he had done some research and could not support the 21-page initiative that, if passed by voters next year, could bring big change to Utah’s political landscape.
A coalition that seeks to take control of drawing legislative districts out of the hands of the legislature filed an initiative petition with the Lieutenant Governor’s Office Wednesday that would put the establishment of an independent redistricting commission to a public vote in November 2010. The group is using volunteers to collect the 95,000 signatures it needs to qualify the measure for the 2010 ballot.