Proposition 4 repeal, late night Republican kleptocracy, and things that go bump in the night

 The bottom line

• Please check to see if you, or anyone you know, is on the petition to repeal Prop 4 at BURRN.org.  Please follow the steps to remove you signature - or contact us for help.
• The Republicans of the State legislature passed a new law last night that is clearly directed at the effort to remove signatures, and indicates that cheap power grabs are more important than actually governing for the good of the people. 
• If you know anyone in SD 15 - Cottonwood Heights, Midvale, parts of Sandy and South and West Jordan, please ask them to check and remove. 

The effort to try to repeal the fair districting process, know as Prop. 4, has seen new twists and turns.  Late last week it looked like the state senate districts in southern Davis County would be very close, and BURRN and other groups focused their efforts there;  to get on the ballot, the petitions have to reach a certain number in 26 of 29 state senate districts, AND a bit over 140,000 signatures statewide (which was met, as expected). Early this week about 2000 signatures were 'found' and added enough signatures that they reached the 26 of 29 districts.   

But wait, there is more.  Last night (Friday, March 6) at about 11 pm, HB 242 was introduced to change the process by which signatures could be removed, and how various signatures can be counted.  Among the law's language is that prepaid postage on first class envelopes is considered a 'bribe', and it will no long be legal to provide a stamp or a prepaid mailer to people who want to take their name off the ballot. The bill passed at 11:19 pm with over 2/3 majorities in both houses, and Governor Cox signed the bill at 2:14 am.  This means the law will be in effect immediately.

What the hill?  Well, BURRN, Better Boundaries, and other groups have worked very hard and have helped over 6,300 people remove their signatures (sometime at a rate of 100's per day) because they learned more, felt the were duped into signing, or in a number of cases DID NOT SIGN A PETITION and yet their names are on the petition submitted to the county clerks. No explanation about this last point has been provided.

Late this week BURRN and Better Boundaries pivoted to work on Senate District 15 to get the petition below the 26/29 threshold. Many signature removal events started Friday and will go through the weekend.  By the time you read this, SD 15 will probably be within 600 signatures - still a heavy lift, to be honest.  But there are many legal questions which will surely be raised Monday - including the fact that the legislature wrote into law deadlines regarding postmarks, when the USPS does not postmark much of its mail anymore; a large number of envelopes were sent in the past few days, and ... gasp... some people were given envelopes AND stamps to mail their form in.  

Map of State Senate District 15 - Midvale, Cottonwood Heights, Sandy, and the Jordans, and Big Cottonwood Canyon. 

So that is the news today.  The Republicans again they try to  weasel their way to a victory over a bunch of volunteers, retirees, people volunteering their evenings and weekends, moms driving around the districts with materials, rather than simply facing voters and defending their views and policies.  Every signature removal is a small message from the people that we need open, honest governance, not cheap political subterfuge.