Utah lawmakers are quietly walking back a controversial change to ballot language rules — sort of.
In 2024, lawmakers approved a change to Utah election law that made the Utah House Speaker and Senate President responsible for writing the description of any proposed constitutional amendment that would appear on the ballot. Prior to that, it was legislative lawyers who were tasked with that job.
The result? A legal and political disaster.
Amendment D, which sought to give lawmakers near unfettered authority to undo citizen-led ballot initiatives, was voided from the 2024 ballot because a judge ruled that the ballot description written by those leaders was misleading.
Facing the prospect of having another proposed amendment — this one about changing how the state funds public education — meet the same fate, the legislature yanked Amendment A from the ballot.
Now, in an apparent course correction, House Speaker Mike Schultz has proposed HB563, which reverts to the pre-2024 process: legislative lawyers would return to being responsible for writing proposed amendment ballot summaries.
But there’s one big difference.
Schultz's bill specifies that legislative lawyers are acting as legal counsel for the House Speaker and Senate President when writing ballot summaries – language that was notably absent in the previous law.
The message is clear: Schultz's addition suggests those two legislative leaders will likely keep significant control over how the ballot language for proposed amendment ultimately appears to voters.
