But Curtis and other House GOP leaders feared that giving anti-voucher legislators another shot at the bill could mean its defeat. So they said no, that a separate amendment bill was needed. Thus came HB174, which contained most of the voucher-implementation language, but not all of it. HB174 then passed by more than two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate.

Bills that pass by a two-thirds majority can't be subject to referenda. So voters will only get a shot at HB148. And even if they vote that down, HB174 would still be law and vouchers might still be able to go forward.

That's the two-bill problem.

But Curtis believes that those who advocate a special session so HB174 can be repealed are just plain wrong and don't understand Utah lawmaking. Curtis during the session voted in favor of vouchers and is given credit for pushing vouchers through the House.

"Repeal HB174 and you take out of Utah code the guts of voucher law," said Curtis, an attorney. In effect, Utahns then would have no vouchers and the Nov. 6 vote would be meaningless. "You have no voucher law in the code," he said. Vote "yes" on vouchers (Nov. 6) and you still don't have any voucher law because the guts of HB148 — also found in HB174 — would have been repealed.

Vote "no" on vouchers Nov. 6, and likewise nothing would change because the guts of the voucher law would have been removed by repealing HB174.

"You have to have the public vote," Curtis said. If residents vote down HB148, then the governor and Legislature could act. If residents vote "yes" and HB148 takes effect, then nothing would need to be done because the voucher law would stand.

The key question is who should legislators and Huntsman listen to on Nov. 6 — the statewide vote or the votes within individual House and Senate districts?

Huntsman, in his letter last weekend, said that the will of all the people must rule — the statewide vote will determine the fate of vouchers.

"The whole state is his constituency," said Curtis. "So I completely understand" Huntsman wants the overall vote to rule. "But I'm not going to tell my colleagues" in the House and Senate "to ignore their individual constituents in their districts because the governor asks them to. I don't expect the governor to ignore his overall constituents."

Despite what Huntsman says about the overall vote being "definitive," Curtis said legislators must look to their own districts' votes in deciding whether to repeal vouchers, if the measure fails at the ballot box.

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E-mail: bbjr@desnews.com; terickson@desnews.com