Final push under way to get initiatives on state ballot

SALT LAKE CITY — With two weeks left before voter signature petitions are due, various groups seeking to put their initiatives on the 2010 ballot are making big pushes in voter sign-up.

Utahns for Ethical Government is targeting several areas of the state, as is the group Fair Boundaries.

UEG's petition deals with legislative ethics and campaign reform.

Fair Boundaries' plan would set up an independent commission to recommend to the Legislature newly-drawn boundaries for U.S. House seats in Utah and for legislative and State School Board districts.

This weekend, UEG volunteers are concentrating on Washington County, one of the state's fastest growing areas.

UEG Chairman Kim Burningham, who will be in St. George, said: "Should Utahns be able to vote on creating a more ethical Legislature? Should citizens be in charge of their government instead of well-funded, narrow interests looking out only for themselves? We believe thousands living in Utah's Dixie would without hesitation say yes."

Several years ago, legislators — many of whom don't like to see citizen initiatives, believing as the elected representatives of the people, they should make state law — made it more difficult to gather the required signatures.

And in a new law passed by the 2010 Legislature, Republican legislators and Gov. Gary Herbert made it easier to remove names from citizen initiative petitions. The law also gave opponents of initiatives 30 days to identify signees and ask them to remove their names.

To get initiatives on the ballot, supporters have until April 15 to get 95,000 signatures statewide of registered voters. Of that number, in 26 of 29 state Senate districts supporters must get 10 percent of those who voted in the last gubernatorial election.

Both the Fair Boundaries and UEG petitions are strongly opposed by the Utah Republican Party.

State Party Chairman Dave Hansen says GOP officials may organize a name-removal campaign against UEG and Fair Boundaries should it appear the groups, in some critical state Senate districts, have barely achieved the required number of signees.

State Democrats have endorsed the Fair Boundaries initiative, but have not acted on the UEG petition — which, among other things, would curtail fund raising by candidates and political parties.