Nothing to see here: Utah GOP lawmakers quash hearing on chaotic caucus presidential vote

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Worried that examining what went wrong during the GOP's presidential preference poll in March might reflect poorly on the caucus system, legislative Republicans slammed the brakes on a scheduled hearing Wednesday afternoon.

You'll remember that instead of a presidential primary, the Utah GOP held a presidential preference poll in March in conjunction with the party's biennial neighborhood caucus meetings in the hopes of boosting turnout.

That turned out to be a disaster. Technical problems caused long lines and voting problems, and many attendees gave up. Because of the mess, party officials could only provide partial results, which took several hours.

Republican legislative leaders have been trying to derail this discussion for months. GOP activist Daryl Acumen says legislative leaders successfully blocked it from the committee's August agenda and were pushing to kill it again this month, but those efforts appeared unsuccessful.

That failure was short-lived, as most of the committee's Republican members voted to remove the item from the agenda Wednesday afternoon.

Why?

There were fears that some of the materials for the meeting, including thousands of complaints from Utah Republicans, would prove too prejudicial.

Many of those complaints focused on how holding the presidential vote at the caucus meetings instead of a state-run primary election made participating difficult.

Some of the complaints from Acumen's presentation:

• "Whoever came up with that idea is a moron..."
• "Total chaos. Finally my wife and I just left. Go back to primaries so all can vote! First time we couldn't vote for 53 years!"
• "My elderly parents, who have always voted in every election, could not participate because they do not drive at night."
• "As a busy parent, like many adults in this state, I could not attend because one of my children had a performance that night."
• "I have been a registered Republican for nearly 20 years and can say this was the worst "voting" experience I have ever had - I didn't even get to vote. It disenfranchises folks like me who are disabled and utterly destroys any trust in the results."
• "For a political party that pretends to be concerned about voting system integrity, the Utah GOP took a huge step back by going the caucus route. It felt very illegitimate, and I know I am one of many people who came to vote and left without being able to vote.

Acumen was incensed by the last-minute ambush from committee Republicans.

"They just gave the finger to veterans, the elderly, stay-at-home moms, first responders and working people. There's a neurosurgeon who was in surgery during the caucus meeting who couldn't attend," Acumen said.

"Those voices need to be heard. They (lawmakers) said screw you, we don't care."

Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, was the only Republican committee member to vote against pulling the presidential vote item from the agenda.

"I am genuinely disappointed. Truly, deeply disappointed that we have people who came here today, who just want to be heard, who want to be able to speak up," Thatcher said.

"This is a conversation that does need to happen, but not in this way," Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, said. "The materials have already been online. It's already tainted the conversation, and in my opinion, removes the ability to have an objective, fact-based conversation about what is an important issue."