Starting this week, the roughly 70,000 Utahns who signed a Republican petition to put a measure on the ballot to restore the Legislature’s ability to gerrymander political districts will get a letter in the mail asking them to remove their name.
It is a preemptive effort by Better Boundaries — the group opposing the initiative effort — to reach people who, they say, may have been misled into signing the petition and to encourage those voters to submit a form to their county clerks to remove their names in hopes of keeping the Republican initiative off the November ballot.
As it stands, the Republican-backed group, Utahns for Representative Government, have gathered 70,401 out of the 140,748 needed to qualify their effort for the next election — almost exactly halfway to the goal. They have until Feb. 15 to submit the rest of the signatures needed.
But UFRG also has another hurdle to clear. They need to get 8% of the registered voters in 26 of the state’s 29 senate districts to support the initiative — and could prove to be more challenging. So far the group has met the threshold in two Senate districts.
In their letter, Better Boundaries is telling voters who signed the petition that their name appeared on a petition “that would bring back gerrymandering.”
“Surprised? So were we,” it says. It goes on: “Let’s be clear, this is a pro-gerrymandering petition that takes power away from voters and gives it to politicians.”
It includes the form voters would need to submit to their county clerk to remove their name — already filled out with the voter’s information — and a postage-paid envelope for them to mail it in. All the voter needs to do is sign it and mail the letter.
Utahns For Representative Government are trying to put the initiative on the ballot to repeal 2018’s voter-approved Proposition 4 — also known as the Better Boundaries Initiative — which established an independent redistricting commission, neutral standards for drawing political boundaries and a ban on manipulating districts to favor one party over the other.
They are hosting petition signing events across the state, listed at ufrg.org.
Better Boundaries Executive Director Elizabeth Rasmussen said “voters deserve transparency and honesty in the democratic process,” and alleged UFRG signature gatherers were tricking voters into signing petitions.
“Utahns should know exactly what they’re signing, and if a repeal effort can’t win on the facts, it shouldn’t try to win through misleading petition practices,” she said.
But Utah Republican Party Chair Rob Axson said it’s opponents of the repeal effort who are using violence and intimidation to keep Utahns from signing the petitions, and now Better Boundaries is trying to mislead people into removing their signatures.
The tactics, he said, show that Better Boundaries is “concerned that an overwhelming number of Utahns are sick and tired of Prop 4, activist judges and the continued disregard of the Utah Constitution.”
There have been numerous reports of the signature gatherers using deceptive pitches to convince voters to sign the petitions. And, in some instances, signature gatherers and counter-demonstrators have clashed violently, leading to the police being called.
The repeal, if it passes, would eliminate that and give the Republican-dominated Legislature free rein to draw boundaries how it wants.
The UFRG initiative is necessary because the Utah Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that the Legislature can’t simply repeal government reform initiatives without violating citizens’ constitutional right to the initiative process.
The ruling reinstated Proposition 4 as law, and subsequently, a judge ruled the congressional maps needed to be redrawn to comply with the law. When the Legislature’s second attempt failed, the judge imposed a map that created one district in Salt Lake County that favors Democrats.
The Republican-backed group has spent $4.4 million — provided by a dark money group affiliated with President Donald Trump — hiring paid signature gatherers, many of whom are from outside of Utah, in their bid to meet the goal.
Recently, Trump wrote a post on social media encouraging Utahns to sign the petition in hopes of maintaining all four Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Sen. Mike Lee, a sponsor of the initiative effort, has also urged voters to sign the petition.
Note to readers, 2:35 p.m. • The story has been updated to include remarks from the Utah Republican Party chair and Better Boundaries.