Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., where he is reporting on how well Utah's new electronic voting went Nov. 7, Herbert — who officially oversees statewide elections — told the Deseret Morning News that any out-of-cycle special election could be very costly.

"It is running a statewide election all over again," he said.

Besides paying for the normal election costs, the state may well have to sign a new contract with Diebold, the maker and programer of the new video electronic voting machines. Diebold's current contract only calls for its employees to help out on elections every two years.

Any needed work in a spring 2007 special U.S. House election here would be outside of that contract, Herbert said. But he added that he and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. would run any special election "in the most fiscally responsible way."

Huntsman spokesman Mike Mower said, "The redistricting process is working very well. We're pleased with the bipartisan (committee) effort that led to the support for the new redistricting proposal." Asked if the governor supported the committee's Plan L, Mower said, "At this point I couldn't anticipate any reason why we wouldn't be supportive of that proposal." Plan L can be viewed on the Legislature's Web site, www.le.utah.gov — click on "Redistricting Committee 2006" and then "Proposed Redistricting Plans," then "Plan L."

Plan L was approved in bipartisan committee vote after Democrats and Republicans praised how well each had worked with the other.

Only Ferry voted against the new Plan L. "I believe that (a previous bipartisan plan) was the compromise" with minority Democrats, said Ferry. Rural GOP lawmakers could well vote against the latest compromise, because "there may be some cows out in that open space" of western Summit County that goes into Matheson's 2nd District, "but I doubt there are any rural voters there."

And Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, warned committee members that he would be proposing changes to Plan L that would keep his home town whole in either the 2nd or 4th District, but not split in half as it now proposed.

In short, the final map that could come out of Monday's special session could look considerably different than the Plan L the committee recommended.

Finally, all the work and cost of paying for the committee's work and a special session may be for naught.

State officials are rushing to get a four-seat plan before Congress so that a lame-duck session next week can consider a special bill that would give Washington, D.C., a full-voting House seat (the current delegate can't vote on final passage of legislation) and give Utah a fourth seat.

The driving goal is to give the District of Columbia residents at least a full vote in the House. To keep the closely divided 435-member House even between the Republican and Democratic parties, Utah would get an extra seat, too, and the House would move to 437 members. The D.C. seat would almost certainly go Democratic, and the fourth Utah seat would, likewise, almost certainly go to a Republican.

But while House supporters of the measure believe it has a chance to pass in the lame-duck session, both Utah Sens. Bob Bennett and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, say it has little chance to pass in the Senate as more pressing national issues are being debated.

Huntsman says if the bill doesn't pass before Democrats take control of both houses of Congress in January, Utah "is out of business." The new Democratic majority may just push for a D.C. representative, leaving Utah out.

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Contributing: Lisa Riley Roche

E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com, suzanne@desnews.com