| Constitutional Amendments,
Initiatives & Referendums
To
view results of Utah Initiatives and Referendums since 1960, click
here.
For
a list of initiatives and referendums currently in circulation,
click
here
Public
Hearings Currently Scheduled
Circulating an
Initiative Petition
An initiative is a publicly sponsored piece of legislation
that can be submitted to a vote of the people at a general election
or to a vote of the legislature.
To place an initiative on the general election ballot or
before the legislature, sponsors must complete the following procedures:
1. File
an application with the Lt. Governor.
Application forms may be obtained in the Lieutenant Governor's Office or on-line. The application may be filed in person in
the Lieutenant Governor's Office, by mail, or by fax. The application
must include:
- A
statement indicating whether or not persons gathering signatures
for the petition may be paid for doing so.
The Lieutenant Governor then accepts or rejects the application.
The Lt. Governor will reject the application if the law
proposed by the initiative is patently unconstitutional, nonsensical,
if it could not become law if passed, or if the law proposed by
the initiative is identical or substantially similar to an initiative
submitted for evaluation within two years prior to the date of
application.
2. Hold public hearings throughout the state
prior to circulating an initiative. Sponsors must hold seven public hearings throughout the
state prior to circulating an initiative petition for signatures. Public hearings must be held as follows:
- One
in the Bear River region – Box Elder, Cache or Rich County
- One
in the Southwest region – Beaver, Garfield, Iron, Kane or Washington County
- One
in the Mountain region – Summit, Utah or Wasatch County
- One
in the Central region – Juab, Millard, Piute, Sanpete,
Sevier or Wayne County
- One
in the Southeast region – Carbon, Emery, Grand or San Juan County
- One
in the Uintah Basin region – Daggett, Duchesne
or Uintah County
- One
in the Wasatch Front region – Davis, Morgan, Salt Lake, Tooele or Weber County
Of the seven meetings, at least two must be held in a first
class county, but not in the same county.
At least three calendar days prior to a public hearing the
sponsors must notify, in writing, the following individuals: the
Lieutenant Governor, each State Senator, State Representative,
and County Commissioner or County Council
member in the county in which the hearing will be held. Sponsors must also publish a written notice
of the hearing, detailing the time, date and location of the hearing
in at least one newspaper of general circulation in the region
in which the hearing will be held.
Sponsors are responsible for either generating audio or
video tapes of the hearing and providing those tapes to the Lieutenant
Governor, or taking detailed minutes of the meeting to be provided
to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office.
The Lt. Governor will make copies of tapes or minutes available
to the public.
3. Print copies of the petition
and signature sheet and bring them to the Lieutenant Governor’s
Office for numbering.
If the application is approved, the Lt. Governor will prepare
one copy of the initiative petition and signature sheet for the
sponsors. The sponsors should print copies of the initiative packet
and return them to the Lieutenant Governor's Office for numbering.
When
printing the packets, the sponsors should follow these guidelines:
- Petitions
must be circulated with the front sheet(s), which includes the
petition wording and the Lt. Governor's certification.
- Securely
bind signature sheets to the front petition sheet; petitions
that become separated are invalid. Petitions are generally secured
with two staples across the top.
- No
more than 50 signatures sheets can be included in one petition
packet.
The Lieutenant Governor's Office has five
days to number the packets. Petitions packets may be numbered at
any time during the circulation process. 4. Gather the required number
of signatures.
There are two requirements in order to place an initiative on
the general election ballot. First, the sponsors must collect
a number of signatures equal to 10% of all votes cast for governor
in the last gubernatorial election (20A-7-201(2)(a)(i)). Second,
the sponsors must collect a number of signatures from each of
at least 26 of the 29 Utah State Senate districts equal to 10%
of votes cast for governor in that district (20A-7-201(2)(a)(ii)).
For more information on the number
of signatures needed, click here.
To
submit an initiative to the legislature, sponsors must collect
signatures equal to 5% of the votes cast for governor in the last
gubernatorial election. When
submitting an initiative to the legislature, sponsors must gather
a number of signatures equal to 5% of the votes cast for governor
in at least 26 of the 29 Utah State Senate districts.
5. Submit completed petitions
to the county clerks for verification of signatures.
The county clerk will check each of the signatures to ensure that
they are registered voters. The petitions must be submitted to
the county clerk by June 1 to appear on the general election ballot
and by November 15 to be submitted to the legislature at the next
general session.
It
is suggested that sponsors collect more signatures than the number
required as some who sign the petitions are not registered voters.
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