states

Utah

69 High Risk
Utah
Electoral Votes
6
2020 Margin1
20.5%
State Legislature Control2
R
Voter Suppression and Election Interference Bills3
4
State Senate GOP Share
72.4%
State House GOP Share
81.3%
State Senate GOP Skew
14.3%
State House GOP Skew
23.2%

Utah has an ISLT score of 69, which means it has a high risk of a Republican-led state legislature passing legislation to swing the state’s 2024 electoral votes toward the Republican presidential nominee. 

Utah’s margin of victory in the last presidential contest was 20.5%, making it the 33rd closest contest. The margin of victory in the state matters because states with the closest margins of victories are more likely to flip as a result of voter suppression bills and other tactics that could be unleashed by a rogue, unaccountable state legislature. 

Currently, the state legislature is controlled by the Republican Party. The partisan control of the state legislature is included because Republican operatives supported and carried out an insurrectionist coup to undermine democracy in the last election, and have demonstrated a desire to overturn democratic election outcomes if necessary in order to gain power. Republicans control 81.3% of the Utah House and 72.4% of the Utah Senate, which indicates that Republicans have a strong majority to enact future legislation that could interfere with the 2024 election. We also compared the partisan control of the state legislature to the state’s 2020 presidential results, and found that Republicans control 23.2% more state house seats and 14.3% more state senate seats than expected. This skew toward the GOP indicates that the state legislature, which could be empowered to enact radical federal election law changes under ISLT, may well be insulated from being held accountable by voters.

Utah’s legislature introduced at least 4 bills during 2021 and 2022 that would suppress votes or interfere with election administration.

Additional Considerations

State Supreme Court

Under a maximalist version of ISLT, the state Supreme Court would be unable to review or strike down any federal election-related changes the state legislature enacted. State legislatures could enact radical changes without state courts or the state constitution checking their authoritarian power. For this reason, the Conference of Chief Justices — which represents chief justices of both parties in all 50 states, took the rare step of filing an amicus brief opposing ISLT.

Redistricting

ISLT could drastically reshape the redistricting process for U.S. House seats, enabling radical state legislatures to gerrymander with impunity. Currently, Utah uses an advisory commission that gives input into the congressional reapportionment process.4 If the Supreme Court adopts ISLT, the state legislature could choose to take full control of the redistricting process for U.S. House elections and strip the advisory commission of its authority.

State-Specific Factors

Currently, voters in Utah have the power to engage in direct democracy — they can directly influence state law through ballot initiatives and voter referendums, which provide a powerful check on the state legislature.5 Voter-initiated legislation in states across the U.S. has addressed matters such as establishing all-mail vote systems, filling vacant U.S. Senate seats through a special election rather than governor appointment, redistricting criteria, and more. Utah employs voter referendums and ballot initiatives that may allow voters to have a say in how officials conduct federal elections. However, if the Supreme Court adopts ISLT, the Utah state legislature could strip this power away from voters for matters related to federal elections and end the federal election-related voter-initiated statutes already in place. All states except Delaware also require voter approval when the state legislature amends the state constitution; under a maximalist version of ISLT, state legislatures could adopt election rules and laws that violate the state constitution without the need to amend it or seek voter approval.

1 2020 presidential election data sourced from “2020 Presidential Election Results” Interactive Map, New York Times.
2 2022 midterm election data sourced from “Utah Election Results 2022 Midterms,” The New York Times and “Utah House of Representatives elections, 2022,” Ballotpedia. Several seats have yet to be called; our data is based on current leaders and will be updated.
3 State legislation data sourced from “Comprehensive Bill Tracker,” Voting Rights Lab (accessed Nov. 7, 2022).
4 “Utah State Summary,” All About Redistricting/ Loyola Law School.
5 Direct democracy data sourced from “Forms of direct democracy in the American states,” Ballotpedia, and “Initiative and Referendum Processes,” National Conference of State Legislatures.

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