Utahns are nearly evenly split on whether to repeal Utah’s redistricting law, Proposition 4, eight years after it passed as a ballot initiative, according to the latest Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll.
As Republican lawmakers seek to overturn a series of court decisions that allowed 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson to implement a new congressional map, the state GOP is gathering signatures to put the underlying law on the ballot — again.
The GOP, with the help of national get-out-the-vote groups, is in the midst of gathering more than 140,000 verified signatures from voters across the state. It must do so before February 14 to give voters a chance to repeal Proposition 4 in November.
Approved with 50.3% of the vote in 2018, Proposition 4, or the Better Boundaries initiative, established a redistricting commission and codified anti-gerrymandering restrictions to guide the redistricting process every decade after the census.
More than 4 in 10 Utah voters don’t know if they support the GOP effort to eliminate Utah’s independent redistricting commission, poll finds. The rest of the voters are divided, with 26% supporting the proposal and 29% opposing it.
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Voters are undecided across the political spectrum.
Among Republicans, 33% support repeal, 22% oppose and 45% don’t know. Support falls to 22% among Democrats, with 40% opposed and 37% feeling unsure. Only 20% of independents support repealing the proposal, while 34% oppose it and 46% don’t know.
The survey was conducted by Morning Consult from January 7-12, among a sample of 799 registered voters in Utah. Full survey results have a margin of error of +/- 3%.
GOP, Better Boundaries Responds
Utah’s voter uncertainty isn’t alarming to Utah GOP Chairman Rob Axson. It’s encouraging, he said, because it shows even after nearly a decade and millions of dollars spent on Proposition 4’s behalf, it “doesn’t sit well with the people of Utah.”
“I think we’re in a perfect spot,” Axson told the Deseret News. “We haven’t even begun to communicate broadly what the issue is beyond our signature-gathering efforts, and we’ll have the rest of 2026 to engage substantially in dialogue and discussion.”
As of Thursday afternoon, with one month left to submit signatures, the Lieutenant Governor’s Office verified the signatures of 45,505 Utah voters who wanted to see the Proposition 4 repeal issue placed on the general election ballot.
However, this number does not reflect the total number of signatures collected so far. Once a petition is started, the GOP has 30 days to turn it in. The county clerk then has 21 days to verify those signatures, with a March 7 deadline.
The initiative’s sponsors are “very confident” they will gather enough verified signatures in time, according to Axson. “We look forward to Utahns making this decision with a broader understanding of the issue than they had in 2018,” he said.
Better Boundaries, the political interest group that raised funds and publicized the Proposition 4 initiative, told the Deseret News the organization looks forward to revisiting the reasons Utahns decided to pass the law eight years ago.
“Utahns across the political spectrum supported Proposition 4, and this poll reflects that,” said Better Boundaries Executive Director Elizabeth Rasmussen. “We will continue to defend the right of Utahns to elect their politicians and ensure fair representation.”
The group referred to the GOP initiative as “a real opportunity” to “get back to basics and make the case again for why Utahns passed Prop 4 in the first place.” Based on the survey data, both sides have a lot of undecided minds to convince.
And no wonder. The state’s redistricting saga has been long, complicated and filled with conflicting claims from the top of Utah politics about who should have the final say in drawing congressional maps: lawmakers, a commission or the courts.
Washington County rejects new map
In 2021, lawmakers adopted new electoral boundaries dividing Democratic voters in Salt Lake County after rejecting redistricting commission recommendations that they made nonbinding during the previous legislative session.
This invited a lawsuit in 2022 that led to a 2024 Utah Supreme Court ruling that the Utah Legislature cannot, in most cases, amend ballot initiatives that reform government. Based on that fact, Gibson threw out the Utah map in October.
Gibson then ruled in November that a replacement map adopted by lawmakers did not follow the original intent of Proposition 4. Instead, she chose a map submitted by nonprofit groups that created a deeply Democratic seat in Salt Lake County.
Over the past three months, the disagreement over Proposition 4 has turned into GOP accusations that Gibson created a map to benefit Democrats and that the new legal precedent underlying her decision has created a “constitutional crisis.”
That’s the view of Washington County Commissioner Victor Iverson, who joined fellow Commissioner Adam Snow last month in voting not to update the county’s voter district maps to comply with the new court-ordered boundaries.
At the heart of Iverson’s criticism is the belief that by installing a map not approved by the Legislature, Gibson violated the state Constitution which says in Article IX that “The Legislature shall apportion the State into . . . congressional districts.”
“We believe in the separation of powers,” Iverson told the Deseret News. “If Judge Gibson wants to take over the powers of the governor, the lieutenant governor and the legislature, well, maybe he can come here and take over the power of the county commission.”
The Legislature has already begun the process of challenging Gibson’s ruling to the Utah Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Iverson said lawmakers should vote on a new map during the upcoming legislative session and get the federal courts involved.
Iverson framed the commission’s Dec. 15 vote as a way to “send a message” to Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson that the process leading to the new map is unacceptable. The Utah Democratic Party, for its part, framed the move as “political obstruction.”
“Counties cannot override state law or court rulings when it is inconvenient,” party chairman Brian King said in a statement. “This kind of behavior erodes public trust and tells voters that the rules only apply when those in power approve.”
Proposition 4 deserves support, from courts and counties, according to King, because Utahns voted in 2018 to impose constrains on lawmakers “to ensure fair maps, fair elections and the basic idea that no one is above the law.”
If the Utah Republican Party’s 2026 resumption of initiative is successful, Utah voters will have a chance to decide whether they believe Proposition 4 is — after years of legal battles — the right way to do it.