On the penultimate day of the 2025 Utah legislative session, lawmakers approved big changes to the state’s vote-by-mail process.
Utah is one of eight states that run elections primarily by mail and that won’t change. But instead of automatically receiving a ballot in the mail, starting in 2029, voters will have to opt-in every eight years under HB300. If they don’t opt-in, they will have to vote in person. And as an additional measure, if a voter fails to vote in two consecutive general elections they will have to opt-in again for a mail ballot.
The changes also include a provision that requires voters to add the last four digits of valid identification on the ballot along with their signature starting in 2026. As the bill is drafted, a signature will no longer be required in 2029.
The legislation drew hefty opposition due to the popularity and accessibility of the current system. Since Utah switched to universal voting by mail in 2018, voter turnout has significantly increased. Multiple polls also show high levels of confidence in how elections are conducted, including one from The Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank. It found that 87% of people surveyed were very or somewhat confident that ballots are secure.
“We have a really good election process in the state and there is high confidence,” said Republican Sen. Mike McKell during a March 6 debate. “But when you do look at polling, there is concern with [the] security of elections.”
Some Republicans argued the move to add the last four digits of a valid ID is to improve election security and integrity. They placed a lot of emphasis on a 2024 Pew Research poll that found 81% of voters approve of some kind of voter ID laws.
The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Jefferson Burton, acknowledged that people don’t want vote by mail to go away but added there is a group of people who lack confidence in elections without voter ID laws.
“There is a large constituency that has been afraid that maybe people that aren't citizens are voting, and we need to just tighten that up,” Burton told KUER. “I think it was an issue with a certain constituency and not with others.”
Legislative audits conducted on the outcome of the 2024 election found no evidence of widespread voter fraud or errors.
The bill changed several times during the session.
Initially, it required all voters to return their mail ballot at a dropbox where a poll worker would check their identification. The Disability Law Center, tribal nations and other advocates said that requirement would disenfranchise voters.
On the House floor, it was then revised to allow voting by mail but with the opt-in and voter ID requirements. However, the Clerks and Auditors Association of the State of Utah then came out in opposition. In a Senate committee hearing, at least two county clerks argued the changes would make elections less secure, make it harder to vote and be expensive to implement. Right now, the Legislature has allocated $2 million of one-time money to comply with the changes. Clerks have said that it is likely not enough, especially to establish a database with ID information for all of the state’s 1.7 million active voters.
The biggest changes in the March 6 version of the bill allow voters to opt-in to receive notifications about the status of their ballot and for voters who don’t have a valid ID to include a “photocopy of certain forms of identification in the return envelope.” The association pivoted their stance to neutral on the bill. In a statement sent to KUER, they said many changes were made and that they look forward to working with lawmakers during the interim session to work out any kinks before the bill takes full effect.
McKell said it also addresses a lot of concerns related to accessibility, including those who are disabled, don’t have identification or live in rural areas of the state. The state will provide state IDs free of charge. Voters who qualify for an exemption, including those who are bedridden or under hospice care, can apply to vote electronically.
Still, there was opposition to the changes on the Senate floor.
Republican Sen. Daniel Thatcher criticized the bill for going against what Utahns want. He said the Legislature is making it clear to constituents that “we expect them to capitulate” even though the policy is “deeply unpopular.” Thatcher added the clerk’s neutral position wasn’t much of a victory as well.
“I wish that I thought that meant this was good legislation, instead of just the realization that it's the best deal that they're going to get,” he said. “I don't think that's how we should be doing things.”
Thatcher doesn’t believe the changes make Utah’s elections any more secure or accessible. If anything, he argued it hinders both. The most fraudulent acts during an election, he said, are mothers forging signatures for their child away on a mission trip for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I guarantee that that mom is going to have that social security number handy and that it's a whole lot harder to check that than it is to check a signature,” he said.
Democratic Sen. Nate Blouin echoed similar concerns that only using the last four digits of a valid ID would make the system less secure and more costly to implement.
“I don't know that we have the technology ready to go on those sort of things to make sure that we are addressing elections with the same level of security that we get out of signatures,” he said. “I think we've seen lots of conspiracy thinking around this, and frankly, we're just feeding into that sort of thinking with this sort of legislation.”
McKell said voters would still be required to sign the ballot because it’s an affidavit. Although, he admitted adding a signature after 2029 is not in the bill.
Three Republican senators joined all Democrats in voting against the bill. The legislation now goes to Gov. Spencer Cox.
