The signature deadline for Utah initiatives passed on Feb. 15, 2022. Secure Vote Utah collected signatures for an initiative that would have required a valid state-issued ID to vote and would have made in-person voting on election day the primary voting method (rather than voting by mail). As of 10:50 a.m. local time on Feb. 15, the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s office showed that Secure Vote Utah had submitted 3,828 valid signatures. To qualify for the ballot, 137,929 valid signatures were required.
One other citizen initiative was filed in Utah targeting the 2022 ballot. Utahns for Fair Elections sponsored the initiative, and it would have established open top-five primaries and ranked-choice voting for general elections in which voters ranked candidates. The initiative was withdrawn prior to the signature deadline.
The last time a citizen initiative was on the statewide ballot in Utah was in 2018. All three initiatives on the 2018 ballot in Utah— a marijuana legalization measure, a Medicaid expansion measure, and an independent redistricting commission measure— were approved by voters but were later altered by the state legislature. Eleven of the 21 states that feature the initiated state statute power, including Utah, have no restrictions on how soon or with what majority state legislators can repeal or amend initiated statutes approved by voters.
The Utah State Legislature referred a constitutional amendment to the 2022 ballot during its 2021 legislative session that would increase the amount of money the legislature can appropriate in an emergency session. The state legislature can refer additional constitutional amendments to the ballot during its 2022 legislative session, which began on Jan. 18 and was set to end on March 4, 2022.
A total of 47 measures appeared on the statewide ballot in Utah between 2000 and 2020. Between 2000 and 2020, 85% (40 of 47) of statewide measures were approved by voters, and 15% (7 of 47) were defeated.
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