For the second year in a row, changes could be on the way for Utah’s vote-by-mail process.
HB479 would, among other things, require a valid ID for mail ballots and polling staff to physically man dropboxes. It would also require voters to opt in to returning their ballot by mail or dropbox.
“Bottom line, dead voters can't show up and vote and present their ID in person,” said sponsor Rep. Jefferson Burton on the House floor on March 2. “Signatures are not ID. ID is ID. So this bill simply gives voters a chance to go and show their ID, if they opt in to do so.”
But not all lawmakers are on the same page.
Democratic Rep. Andrew Stoddard asked his House colleagues to wait and see what changes, if any, are really needed after last year’s push to make vote-by-mail opt-in.
“Last year, we passed a wide, sweeping electoral bill in HB300. We have not even seen the consequences of that bill put into place,” he said. “While I appreciate the good sponsor and his work in strengthening our elections, I think we are piling on too much too fast without seeing the effects of the policies we're putting into place.”
Ultimately, the House version of the bill moved on to the Senate with a 42-30 vote. Following its passage, sponsor Sen. Mike McKell had a short response.
“Let’s keep working on it,” he said to laughter from his Senate colleagues.
Vote-by-mail has proven incredibly popular in Utah. Since the state switched to universal mail ballots in 2018, turnout has significantly increased. A February report from the Sutherland Institute, a conservative think tank, found that Utah voter confidence in vote-by-mail increased from 2024 to 2025. Additionally, it found that “policies that make it more difficult to cast a ballot by mail decrease voter confidence and legislator electability.”
Some senators have expressed pause over how the latest bill could be implemented and what the changes could mean for rural Utah.
“We've talked about it over and over and over and over again that our constituency wants elections that are easy, and they want an easy way to vote,” said Senate President Stuart Adams. “I actually like the bill, but there is a portion of it that has not been worked out yet that we probably need to work on. That is, how do you implement the latter part of it? And in urban areas, it's probably easier than in rural areas.”
The proposed changes stem from a lingering focus on election security following the 2020 presidential race. There was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in that election. In January, after reviewing more than 2 million Utahns registered to vote, the Lt. Governor’s Office said it found no instances of noncitizens voting in recent years.
Another hiccup is that the bill did not get any funding in the initial draft of the state budget. As of now, the bill carries a price tag of more than $7 million, much of which would fall on local governments.
Sen. Jerry Stevenson, who chairs the Executive Appropriations Committee, said the state budget is “95%-96% set right now.”
“There's a lot of bills that we are running that we have anticipated would pass,” he said. “They are in the budget.”
In the House, Speaker Mike Schultz said discussions are not over and that he expects some money to be allocated in the coming days.
“There's a lot of bills that have not been funded yet that still need to be funded,” he said. “That's one of the bills that we’ll continue to have discussions around.”
For McKell, he hopes the House will be open to further revisions before the session ends March 6.
“It's still a House bill,” he said. “And I'm hoping they'll work with us to figure it out.”
