Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman’s hopes for undoing his primary election loss to Spencer Cox are quickly fading.
On Friday, a judge denied his campaign’s emergency request to force the state to turn over the signature packets Cox used to qualify for the primary ballot.
Since shortly before the primary election, Lyman’s campaign has suggested that the 28,000 signatures from Republican voters on the petitions Cox used to qualify for the primary election may not have been valid. Pursuing that theory, the campaign filed open records requests to gain access to those signature packets in an effort to somehow throw out enough signatures to invalidate Cox’s candidacy. When those open records requests were denied, they took the issue to court.
In his opinion, issued late Friday afternoon, Third District Judge Stephen Nelson wrote that Lyman’s vague claims of possible fraud were unconvincing.
“Plaintiffs’ generalized allegations of harm to ‘transparency’ or ‘integrity’ in the primary election process are insufficiently vague,” Nelson wrote.
During a Thursday court hearing, attorneys for Lyman’s campaign argued that the state should be forced to turn over the information from Cox’s signature packets before Monday, which is the day the state certifies the primary election results, or by Sept. 6, which is the deadline for candidates to be included on the November ballot.
In denying the request, Nelson said Lyman’s campaign waited far too long to raise any potential issues with Cox’s signatures, and did not explain how it would be able to conduct an investigation and make any challenges regarding Cox’s signature petitions by the Monday canvassing deadline or the Sept. 6 ballot deadline.
“Plaintiffs have not presented any evidence to the court about their timeline for the investigation process into the signature packets (if the court were to grant the motion) as well as how they would prevail in whatever legal process would be required to replace Spencer Cox and Deidre Henderson on the final election ballot,” Nelson wrote.
Lyman did not respond to requests from The Salt Lake Tribune seeking comment.
Friday’s ruling was the second setback in as many days for Lyman’s longshot bid to undo his primary loss. On Thursday morning, the Utah State Records Committee denied his request to gain access to the signature packets submitted by Sen. Don Ipson’s campaign. Ipson was unable to petition his way onto the primary election ballot because a large number of the signatures he submitted were rejected. Lyman’s campaign theorized that since Ipson and Cox employed the same signature-gathering company, it’s possible that some signatures that were rejected on Ipson’s petitions could have been included in Cox’s total.
Lyman’s lawsuit seeking access to Cox’s signature packets can move forward, but it will no longer be on an expedited schedule.
It’s unlikely Lyman’s suit will be resolved before the Sept. 6 ballot deadline.