Why We Want Fair Districts
This should have been easy. Redistricting, which happens every 10 years with the Census, reorders voting districts so that populations are equal in each one. While equality is the numerical goal, it has not been the political result.
Citizens often say they don’t vote because gerrymandering has taken away their voice and in fact there are few if any competitive districts in the state.
Our lawsuit – League of Women Voters of Utah v. Utah State Legislature, has been an effort to give voters a chance to be heard and to ensure that our representatives hear from all of their constituents. And we have won in both the Utah Supreme Court and now in the District Court, which has chosen a new map for the 2026 election.
If the legislature does run an initiative to overturn the Prop 4 initiative, please DECLINE TO SIGN.
Here are a few points of interest in the case:
· THE LEGISLATURE HAS THE POWER TO PASS MAPS BUT THEY MUST FOLLOW THE LAW
o The Utah Constitution (Article VI, Section 1:clearly establishes that the state's legislative power is held by the Legislature (the Senate and the House of Representatives) and the people.
o People's power: It also specifies how the people can exercise this power through initiatives and referendums, as provided by statute. Therefore, legislative power in Utah is shared. This is what happened in 2018, when citizens passed Proposition 4.
o In Article I, Section 2, part of the Utah Declaration of Rights, the Constitution explicitly states:
"All political power is inherent in the people; and all free governments are founded on their authority for their equal protection and benefit, and they have the right to alter or reform their government as the public welfare may require".
o Prop 4 does NOT say the Legislature can’t draw maps, it just says the Legislature has to follow the law when they do it
o The Legislature wants the power to draw maps however they want, including extreme gerrymanders to favor the party in power. But the Constitution gives power to the people to pass laws providing guardrails for the Legislature to follow, and that’s what Prop 4 is.
o If the Legislature violates the law and passes an illegal map, the court has the power and the obligation to make sure there is a legal map in place. Utah can’t have an illegal map.
· JUDGE DIANNA GIBSON IS FAIR AND THOROUGH
o Throughout this case, Judge Gibson has been thorough and fair
o Each side has won some issues and lost some issues throughout this case.
o The attempts by some legislators to influence Judge Gibson by threatening impeachment are inappropriate and would be a gross abuse of power
· THE JUDGE ENJOINED SB 1011 AS AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINS PROP 4
o Disguised by flawed statistics, S.B. 1011 mandates the use of gerrymandered maps.
o Prop 4’s core reform was to ban partisan gerrymandering; S.B. 1011 directly undermines that reform by requiring maps that systematically benefit one party.
o S.B. 1011 mandates that only certain tests, cherry-picked by the Legislature to the exclusion of all others, be used to assess whether a map satisfies Proposition 4’s partisan gerrymandering prohibition.
BOTTOM LINE:
o The people of Utah have been asking for fair maps for seven years, and it’s time for the Legislature to listen.
o If the Legislature won’t follow the law, it’s the obligation of the court to ensure that Utah voters have a legal map and that their constitutional rights are respected
