The Utah Supreme Court has issued an opinion clarifying the meaning of recent changes to Utah’s election laws.
Utah Supreme Court justices concluded that in order to be a qualified political party, the Utah Republican Party must allow its members to choose which path to the primary ballot they want to take. That means a candidate can choose to gather signatures, go before delegates at a party convention, or both. Prior to this decision, the Utah GOP had been operating under the assumption that the law allowed the party to choose which paths were available.
This is the Utah GOP’s second major setback this week in their attempts to get the courts to declare the alternative signature path to the ballot unconstitutional.