Independent redistricting proposal appears to have qualified for November's ballot

It appears that all four of the proposed ballot initiatives have now qualified for November's ballot, the latest being the independent redistricting proposal.

The "Better Boundaries" initiative, which establishes an independent redistricting commission, met the signature requirements on Thursday morning. Those requirements include gathering more than 113,000 signatures statewide and collecting signatures equal to 10% of the previous presidential election vote in 26 of 29 Utah state Senate districts.

Catherine Kanter, Campaign Manager for Better Boundaries, celebrated the milestone in an email statement to UtahPolicy.com.

"We are pleased with the signature count and thrilled that the voices of so many Utah voters have been heard. We are looking forward to official certification for November's ballot."

Official certification for November's ballot won't come until June 1. Those who signed the ballot initiatives have until May 15 to remove their names from the petitions.

The fight over removing names from petitions is getting ugly over two proposals, one to legalize medical marijuana and the "Count My Vote" proposal.

In the case of medical marijuana, opponents who have been pushing to get signatories to remove their name from the petition have filed a complaint with the Utah Elections Office alleging backers of the proposal are offering to buy completed signature removal forms to prevent them from being submitted.

Count My Vote has been in a protracted battle with the Keep My Voice group, which failed to get enough signatures to put their own petition on November's ballot to get rid of Utah's signature path for candidates. Instead, the KMV group has been paying canvassers to go door-to-door for signature removals. KMV has also sent out an email to make one final push for signature removals this weekend before the Tuesday deadline.

The Utah Decides Healthcare act, which would require the state to take full Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, has also passed the threshold for ballot inclusion.