Utah Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox on Tuesdayannounced the qualifying statewide ballot initiatives for the November election, with half of the original six petitions getting enough signatures to appear on the ticket.
Voters this fall will get to decide on legalization of medical marijuana and full Medicaid expansion. They’ll also weigh in on the proposed creation of an independent redistricting commission to oversee lawmakers when they draw new political maps in 2020.
Those three citizen-led ballot measures met the required signature thresholds in 26 of 29 counties. But Utahns will not get to choose to solidify the state’s dual pathway to the primary ballot for candidates, after the Count My Vote initiative was derailed by opponents.
“We’ve anticipated this potential and are prepared to move forward aggressively," said Rich McKeown, executive co-chairman of Count My Vote.
He said a coordinated campaign by conservative delegates to get voters to remove their signatures appears to have been successful.
Nearly 3,000 voters removed their signatures from the Count My Vote petition, putting them under the threshold by three counties.
“The effort that they’ve gone through to take signatures off is really an effort to deprive Utah voters of a chance to vote on this," said McKeown.
McKeown said they intend to appeal the decision to the Utah Supreme Court.
That’s not the only initiative that could end up in court. Opponents of the the medical marijuana measure have already sued to try to keep the issue off the ballot.
