A recent article in the Salt Lake Tribune asks some questions about the new election law.
http://www.sltrib.com/home/3369406-155/some-utah-republicans-face-huge-hurdles?fullpage=1
I
don't mind talking to thousands of people at their door, but if it is
going to take too many hours for one person to do that in the few weeks
that are available to get the signatures, and that time is primarily
during the legislative session, I would rather a legislator spend the
time reading bills that they would be voting on and having town hall
meetings than doing the signature route.
A federal judge has ruled that a portion of the law that passed in 2014,
SB 54 Elections Amendments, is not constitutional for two political
parties, the Utah Republican and the Utah Constitution parties. This
part of the law requires the political parties allow voters who were not
members of their party to select their party’s nominee. Because of
that ruling, candidates of the Utah Constitution Party cannot use the
optional signature route to get on the party primary ballot. (They don’t
have enough members). They are OK with the ruling because they didn’t
want the State telling their Party how to select its nominees.
Voters can only sign one candidate petition per race but might be able to sign a form to remove their signature, if they act fast enough, and sign someone else’s petition.
In some areas of the State, there are not enough registered Republican Party voters to make the signature party nominee route fair. Candidates using the signature route likely will have to register to do so prior to the legislative session and then all candidates will register after the legislative session. If someone decides to run for Party Nominee after the legislative session, there is almost no time to gather signatures.
The Utah Republican Party, who wasn’t part of the “compromise” is still contesting the law in court. A special legislative session to fix the law based on the court ruling was not called by the Governor
I
have personally fought the signature party nominee route because I
believe it favors the incumbents, the rich and the famous. While I am
now an incumbent and plan on running for re-election after the
legislative session though the neighborhood caucus and convention
system, I am not also using the signature route because I do not believe
that route is fair.
Showing posts with label 2014 SB 54. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2014 SB 54. Show all posts
Friday, January 1, 2016
Monday, November 30, 2015
Elections and March 22
This has two responses I sent out Nov. 23, 2015 re: the questions about elections for 2016:
_____________
When you stick a knife into a well crafted sweater, it starts to unravel. (Whether or not you liked the sweater, isn't the point).
There are several other issues.
See Robert Gerhke for a few of them.
http://www.sltrib.com/home/3219561-155/herbert-wishes-he-wouldve-vetoed-sb54
In my opinion, several decisions the Lt. Gov. has issued this week based on the advice of the AG (office) are in direct conflict with the judge's judgement, and statements from the AG in court.
Below is based on my understanding.
First, IF a QPP must allow all 3 options (Caucus/Convention, Signature, or both) that doesn't match Fact 14 from the judgement based on #12 from the state AG.
Second, It also doesn't match the ruling that the constitution party can be a QPP as they can't do the signatures as the law currently reads with the judgment and the signature route was only declared constitutional if the unaffiliated were not allowed per the judgement if they didn't want them.
Third, based on the ruling, it is the opinion of the Lt. Gov. that the Democratic party can't have the unaffiliated as part of a primary. That violates the idea that the party gets to choose.
[The judge came back and said the ruling only effected the GOP and Constitution Parties. That raises another question. ]
Fourth, the judge made it clear that the GOP could determine membership and based on the judges judgement and list of facts, the GOP can be a QPP.
Fifth, as stated above, the QPP signature gathering numbers restrict signature gathering by some parties in some or all areas/races.
It is true that James Evans said this last week that the party wouldn't have any issue if someone gathered signatures for grassroots or other reasons, they just couldn't get on the ballot with them, they had to follow the convention threshold requirements to get on the ballot. We already have a congressional member/candidate that has announced he isn't doing signatures and he isn't alone.
If the QPP sweater has unraveled enough that only a RPP is allowed, there are other constitutional issues that were not covered before because a party had a choice between and QPP and RPP. At least one of those items left a former Utah Supreme Court justice to say during the race to replace the former AG that it raised a strong constitution concern based on the US Constitution. Many of the flaws of the RPP/CMV option were fixed with 2015 SB 207 this year, but not all.
The bill I had drafted for 2015 that ran in both the house and senate and went to standing committees and passed a senate committee delaying implementation of a signature requirement for a QPP until 2018 wasn't "ripe" yet. It didn't pass last session. Perhaps it is time now.
Fred
PS, this is what I sent to my school district contact and the state school district contact. I thought you should know. it deals with March 22.
__________________
Count My Vote's (CMV's) biggest complaint at their press conference was the doctor or police or firefighter or parent with sick kids not being able to come to their neighborhood caucus night. The SCC passed the same day ballot system to help with that.
While the Utah GOP meetings had well in excess of 115,000 attendees in 2012, it is likely that the attendance in 2016 will exceed that. It should. So should the Democratic party attendees which is likely to also exceed tens of thousands.
The fact is that our POTUS is nominated by national delegates elected by state delegates as it was in 2008, 2012 and will be in 2016. CMV did do nothing to change that, and the 2014 SB 54 as fixed by 2015 SB 207 did not effect the US President races re: the delegate system.
In Utah, the first round of voting, the delegates votes are bound, the other rounds they are not. In the past the first round vote was decided by the June Primary. It is too late for the parties this year and so the decision was made by the parties to decide their nominee in March at or around their neighborhood caucus meeting. The GOP typically has a winner take all system for their delegates. Not so this year if the top votegetter doesn't get a majority. The GOP will have some online POTUS preference voting available, but the precinct leaders and delegates will be chosen that night.
It is my opinion, any school concert, sports event or fencing class on March 22 2016 is a disservice to the citizens of this state, nation and world, as that will be where we really decide who our POTUS will be.
Not only will the state delegates that pick the national delegates be voted on, but the POTUS nominee preference vote will be that night as well. There will likely be a push from POTUS candidates to get their base to the neighborhood caucus night on March 22nd.
On Saturday, at the GOP State central committee the two districts that were mentioned to complain to the Governor about was [...]. It has been known since last March 2015 that the POTUS nomination would not be decided in June but in March. The 22nd. (some online voting for the POTUS nomination will occur)
In the case of Salt Lake County GOP, the Vice Chair of the party also provided the specific request for the schools on March 22 within the first week of school this year. As far as I know, none of the High Schools came back as available. That is rubbish. There shouldn't be anything else happening that night. I worked hard to get both of the major parties on the same day.
I will bring this up on Dec. 7th at the state school district meeting. It is my hope that this is solved this week and we don't have to wait until then.
We still are getting some districts around the state that are reportedly taking advantage of the parties, according to state law, re: the cost and availability of getting the schools for the neighborhood caucus night.
Several legislators have been contacted to open bill files to amend the law to be more clear. The Governor is on board to talk to the state school board. Depending on what the districts do the next couple of weeks, that may not be required.
Since much of the budget for the 2016 session will be decided by Dec. 16 of this year, if the schools want part of the $3 Million of savings we have for not having a special US presidential election, to help with the funding of the neighborhood caucus night, they would have to show they were actually helping instead of hurting. The schools promote that they are community centers. They should act like it.
Fred C. Cox
House 30
West Valley City, UT 84120
_____________
When you stick a knife into a well crafted sweater, it starts to unravel. (Whether or not you liked the sweater, isn't the point).
There are several other issues.
See Robert Gerhke for a few of them.
http://www.sltrib.com/home/3219561-155/herbert-wishes-he-wouldve-vetoed-sb54
In my opinion, several decisions the Lt. Gov. has issued this week based on the advice of the AG (office) are in direct conflict with the judge's judgement, and statements from the AG in court.
Below is based on my understanding.
First, IF a QPP must allow all 3 options (Caucus/Convention, Signature, or both) that doesn't match Fact 14 from the judgement based on #12 from the state AG.
Second, It also doesn't match the ruling that the constitution party can be a QPP as they can't do the signatures as the law currently reads with the judgment and the signature route was only declared constitutional if the unaffiliated were not allowed per the judgement if they didn't want them.
Third, based on the ruling, it is the opinion of the Lt. Gov. that the Democratic party can't have the unaffiliated as part of a primary. That violates the idea that the party gets to choose.
[The judge came back and said the ruling only effected the GOP and Constitution Parties. That raises another question. ]
Fourth, the judge made it clear that the GOP could determine membership and based on the judges judgement and list of facts, the GOP can be a QPP.
Fifth, as stated above, the QPP signature gathering numbers restrict signature gathering by some parties in some or all areas/races.
It is true that James Evans said this last week that the party wouldn't have any issue if someone gathered signatures for grassroots or other reasons, they just couldn't get on the ballot with them, they had to follow the convention threshold requirements to get on the ballot. We already have a congressional member/candidate that has announced he isn't doing signatures and he isn't alone.
If the QPP sweater has unraveled enough that only a RPP is allowed, there are other constitutional issues that were not covered before because a party had a choice between and QPP and RPP. At least one of those items left a former Utah Supreme Court justice to say during the race to replace the former AG that it raised a strong constitution concern based on the US Constitution. Many of the flaws of the RPP/CMV option were fixed with 2015 SB 207 this year, but not all.
The bill I had drafted for 2015 that ran in both the house and senate and went to standing committees and passed a senate committee delaying implementation of a signature requirement for a QPP until 2018 wasn't "ripe" yet. It didn't pass last session. Perhaps it is time now.
Fred
PS, this is what I sent to my school district contact and the state school district contact. I thought you should know. it deals with March 22.
__________________
Count My Vote's (CMV's) biggest complaint at their press conference was the doctor or police or firefighter or parent with sick kids not being able to come to their neighborhood caucus night. The SCC passed the same day ballot system to help with that.
While the Utah GOP meetings had well in excess of 115,000 attendees in 2012, it is likely that the attendance in 2016 will exceed that. It should. So should the Democratic party attendees which is likely to also exceed tens of thousands.
The fact is that our POTUS is nominated by national delegates elected by state delegates as it was in 2008, 2012 and will be in 2016. CMV did do nothing to change that, and the 2014 SB 54 as fixed by 2015 SB 207 did not effect the US President races re: the delegate system.
In Utah, the first round of voting, the delegates votes are bound, the other rounds they are not. In the past the first round vote was decided by the June Primary. It is too late for the parties this year and so the decision was made by the parties to decide their nominee in March at or around their neighborhood caucus meeting. The GOP typically has a winner take all system for their delegates. Not so this year if the top votegetter doesn't get a majority. The GOP will have some online POTUS preference voting available, but the precinct leaders and delegates will be chosen that night.
It is my opinion, any school concert, sports event or fencing class on March 22 2016 is a disservice to the citizens of this state, nation and world, as that will be where we really decide who our POTUS will be.
Not only will the state delegates that pick the national delegates be voted on, but the POTUS nominee preference vote will be that night as well. There will likely be a push from POTUS candidates to get their base to the neighborhood caucus night on March 22nd.
On Saturday, at the GOP State central committee the two districts that were mentioned to complain to the Governor about was [...]. It has been known since last March 2015 that the POTUS nomination would not be decided in June but in March. The 22nd. (some online voting for the POTUS nomination will occur)
In the case of Salt Lake County GOP, the Vice Chair of the party also provided the specific request for the schools on March 22 within the first week of school this year. As far as I know, none of the High Schools came back as available. That is rubbish. There shouldn't be anything else happening that night. I worked hard to get both of the major parties on the same day.
I will bring this up on Dec. 7th at the state school district meeting. It is my hope that this is solved this week and we don't have to wait until then.
We still are getting some districts around the state that are reportedly taking advantage of the parties, according to state law, re: the cost and availability of getting the schools for the neighborhood caucus night.
Several legislators have been contacted to open bill files to amend the law to be more clear. The Governor is on board to talk to the state school board. Depending on what the districts do the next couple of weeks, that may not be required.
Since much of the budget for the 2016 session will be decided by Dec. 16 of this year, if the schools want part of the $3 Million of savings we have for not having a special US presidential election, to help with the funding of the neighborhood caucus night, they would have to show they were actually helping instead of hurting. The schools promote that they are community centers. They should act like it.
Fred C. Cox
House 30
West Valley City, UT 84120
Friday, February 28, 2014
The count my vote bluff do not negotiate with pirates
Word is reaching that Count My Vote is willing to stop their petition. A negotiation with the Utah Legislature.
Count My Vote = Pirates?
From a year ago:
http://fredcox4utah.blogspot.com/2013/03/fair-elections-in-utah.html
Why would Count My Vote now "cave" ? Several good reasons, they wanted the Utah Legislature to bail them out.
1. They never had a well written proposed law.
http://www.neighborhoodelection.org/flaws_in_count_my_vote_proposed_legislation
2. Their Legal brief was finally discovered to be a con.
http://www.countmyvoteutah.org/s/Constitutional-Memorandum-and-Letter-wso2.pdf
In a soon to be released counter brief it was discovered that Count My Vote / Buy My Vote based part of their argument on a minority opinion form the SCOTUS and not the majority opinion. It shows that the Legal Brief put out by Count My Vote to be as flawed as the proposed law. Not only is the conflicting sections in Count My Vote going to give a judge pause and kick it back to the Utah Legislature to fix, and the 2% system obviously not treating candidates from different parties equally, but the whole premise of Count My Vote being able to stand up to the courts is flawed.
3. 2014 SB 2014 passed the Senate.
4. Protect Our Neighborhood Elections files a complaint with the Lt. Governor's office re: Count My Vote asking for signatures, perhaps even all to be thrown out.
from
http://fox13now.com/2014/02/21/complaint-claims-count-my-vote-collected-signatures-in-violation-of-the-law/
The complaint outlines four accusations, which include the following:
1 – Only one of eight corporate donors for Count My Vote has filed the required financial disclosures with the Lt. Governor’s Office.
2 – Washington County School District member emailed Count My Vote materials from a school email account during school hours.
3 – Count My Vote signature collectors have, on documented occasions, verbally misrepresented the nature of initiative, going so far as to completely lie about it.
4 – Count My Vote petitions were allegedly left unattended in public places, which could have allowed anyone to sign without first having their identity verified.
What did Count My Vote do? They pulled in more money, this time from Sen. Orin Hatch, and they called in Mitt Romney, who likely was just acting at the request of Mike Leavitt.
It is in doubt that Mitt Romney is up to speed on the flaws of Count My Vote:
http://www.redstate.com/diary/fredccox/2013/11/07/perhaps-mitt-romney-should-be-blasting-count-my-vote-having-no-run-off/
Passed problems with 2014 SB 54
http://www.fredcox4utah.blogspot.com/2014/02/2014-sb-54-elections-amendments.html
Pirates or Just Cowards?
Count My Vote had their public hearings when the least number could come and even scheduled them during UEA and a Legislative Session.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/56992046-90/count-vote-group-public.html.csp
"They have scheduled four of their seven public statewide meetings at noon during the week with two of those during a special session of the Legislature," said Fred Cox, a former state representative and opponent of the Count My Vote movement. "They also scheduled two of the required regional public meetings during UEA (Utah Education Association), so they don't seem to want the UEA teachers or their invited parents to attend."
Their Press Conference tomorrow is during the State GOP Central Committee meeting so that none of the GOP Party Leaders could be there.
Count My Vote: a Lexus lane to the ballot for the rich and famous. Always has been. With the proposed compromise it is just more obvious.
Fair Elections in Utah. It matters. You can remove your signature using this process:
http://www.neighborhoodelection.org/faq
Count My Vote = Pirates?
From a year ago:
http://fredcox4utah.blogspot.com/2013/03/fair-elections-in-utah.html
Why would Count My Vote now "cave" ? Several good reasons, they wanted the Utah Legislature to bail them out.
1. They never had a well written proposed law.
http://www.neighborhoodelection.org/flaws_in_count_my_vote_proposed_legislation
2. Their Legal brief was finally discovered to be a con.
http://www.countmyvoteutah.org/s/Constitutional-Memorandum-and-Letter-wso2.pdf
In a soon to be released counter brief it was discovered that Count My Vote / Buy My Vote based part of their argument on a minority opinion form the SCOTUS and not the majority opinion. It shows that the Legal Brief put out by Count My Vote to be as flawed as the proposed law. Not only is the conflicting sections in Count My Vote going to give a judge pause and kick it back to the Utah Legislature to fix, and the 2% system obviously not treating candidates from different parties equally, but the whole premise of Count My Vote being able to stand up to the courts is flawed.
3. 2014 SB 2014 passed the Senate.
4. Protect Our Neighborhood Elections files a complaint with the Lt. Governor's office re: Count My Vote asking for signatures, perhaps even all to be thrown out.
from
http://fox13now.com/2014/02/21/complaint-claims-count-my-vote-collected-signatures-in-violation-of-the-law/
The complaint outlines four accusations, which include the following:
1 – Only one of eight corporate donors for Count My Vote has filed the required financial disclosures with the Lt. Governor’s Office.
2 – Washington County School District member emailed Count My Vote materials from a school email account during school hours.
3 – Count My Vote signature collectors have, on documented occasions, verbally misrepresented the nature of initiative, going so far as to completely lie about it.
4 – Count My Vote petitions were allegedly left unattended in public places, which could have allowed anyone to sign without first having their identity verified.
What did Count My Vote do? They pulled in more money, this time from Sen. Orin Hatch, and they called in Mitt Romney, who likely was just acting at the request of Mike Leavitt.
It is in doubt that Mitt Romney is up to speed on the flaws of Count My Vote:
http://www.redstate.com/diary/fredccox/2013/11/07/perhaps-mitt-romney-should-be-blasting-count-my-vote-having-no-run-off/
Passed problems with 2014 SB 54
http://www.fredcox4utah.blogspot.com/2014/02/2014-sb-54-elections-amendments.html
Pirates or Just Cowards?
Count My Vote had their public hearings when the least number could come and even scheduled them during UEA and a Legislative Session.
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/56992046-90/count-vote-group-public.html.csp
"They have scheduled four of their seven public statewide meetings at noon during the week with two of those during a special session of the Legislature," said Fred Cox, a former state representative and opponent of the Count My Vote movement. "They also scheduled two of the required regional public meetings during UEA (Utah Education Association), so they don't seem to want the UEA teachers or their invited parents to attend."
Their Press Conference tomorrow is during the State GOP Central Committee meeting so that none of the GOP Party Leaders could be there.
Count My Vote: a Lexus lane to the ballot for the rich and famous. Always has been. With the proposed compromise it is just more obvious.
Fair Elections in Utah. It matters. You can remove your signature using this process:
http://www.neighborhoodelection.org/faq
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