For those that don't know, in Utah per the state constitution, any bill passed by less than a 2/3 vote of both houses is subject to referendum.
If passed by 2/3 It also can have an immediate effective date, instead of waiting 60 days to take effect.
As you likely know, it takes a lot of signatures to get the bill on the ballot to block it. The legislature didn't get the 2/3 for 2019 SB 2001 last December.
Why, when the Republican leadership of both houses backed the bill did they not get 2/3 of both houses?
Initially the bill passed the senate with 2/3 (20 votes) with 2 Republican's voting against it. They listened to the voters in their area and voted No. It then went to the House. They needed 50 votes for 2/3. They got 43. Not 2/3.
That is when I thought, this bill is subject to Referendum. I started immediately asking if there were others that thought it was a terrible bill. There were on both sides. There were changes in the bill and it went back to the Senate. One Senator had left and so the bill got 19 votes. If the bill had got 50 in the House, they would have had the UHP go get the Senator to bring him back if required. They didn't.
The bill passed and eventually would be signed by the Governor, even after he knew we were gathering signatures. Referendums can't be done without $4 Million and UEA had already caved at that point.
Well, we proved them wrong. We got 170,000 signatures in 29 counties. We only needed about 116,000 votes in 15 counties.
Now, Some [...] in the democratic party is going after some of the 11 Republican Representatives that voted with the people and against the leadership of Speaker Wilson. They are saying their party leadership backed the bill. They forget to mention the legislator voted against the bill and listened to the voters. If the democratic party wants to go after the leadership on this bill, or after these legislators for a different reason, fine, but don't go after the heroes for this bill. Without them there would not have even been the possibility of a referendum.
