Citizens initiatives: Fair Boundaries falls short; ethics supporters keep fighting

SALT LAKE CITY — Leaders of one citizen initiative petition said Thursday they failed to get the 95,000 voter signatures needed to make the November ballot.

Another group says they don't yet know if they've reached that high bar or not, and for now, they will continue a federal lawsuit as county clerks around the state tally their petition signatures.

The signature deadline was 5 p.m. Thursday.

Glenn Wright, field director for Fair Boundaries, told the Deseret News, "Unfortunately, we're not going to make it." Fair Boundaries gathered about 50,000 signatures, he said.

The Fair Boundaries initiative would have set up an independent redistricting commission to redraw U.S. House, legislative and State School Board districts after the 2010 Census. The commission would make that recommendation to the Legislature, which would still have the final say.

Meanwhile, Kim Burningham of Utahns for Ethical Government said Thursday it is still unclear if his group will reach the 95,000-signature level.

"As of (Wednesday) night we had 77,000 signatures, not enough." However, that's not counting dozens of petition packets in control of local organizers. "We didn't have time to get (those packets) into our headquarters, so we just told those folks to take those petitions to their county clerks," Burningham said.

He said he had no idea if there are 18,000 signatures on those packets.

The 77,000-signature number also does not include electronic signatures UEG has gathered on its Web site. "We've had problems with the site, and I can't say how many we have there, either."

Lt. Gov. Greg Bell, state elections officer, already has said online signatures are not valid. Burningham said if there are enough online signatures to get UEG over 95,000, "absolutely" his group would sue in state court to see if those online signatures can be counted.

UEG's initiative would set up an independent ethics commission for the Legislature, cap campaign donations, adopt a tough code of legislative ethics and ban lobbyists' gifts, among other items.

On Thursday, attorneys for UEG faced off against state lawyers in federal court, as UEG sought a temporary restraining order to keep the names of their petition signees private.

State Republican Party chairman Dave Hansen said Thursday that "probably" the party will start a campaign to convince some GOP signees to remove their names from the petition — assuming they can get those names.

"We won't harass anyone; we'll ask them to consider taking their name off," Hansen said. The state GOP opposes both initiatives.