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PROVO, Utah (AP) -- Elected officials on active military duty would be allowed to choose someone to temporarily replace them under a bill a Utah lawmaker plans to introduce in the upcoming session.

The Provo Daily Herald reports state Sen. John Valentine's vote-by-proxy proposal is drawing support from Provo Municipal Councilwoman Laura Cabanilla.

A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, she believes a law is needed to help officials who must leave for six to 18 months but plan to return.

"I think that there needs to be some provision that protects people if they are called to active duty," Cabanilla said.

Several states already have such a system in place, including Texas where three state lawmakers have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. In each case, their wives acted as their substitutes in the Legislature.

The proposal raises questions, said Kelly Patterson, director of Brigham Young University's Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy.

"How do voters hold a representative accountable for votes cast by a proxy?" Patterson asked. "Can the representative say they wouldn't have voted that way?"

Valentine, R-Orem, acknowledged his bill could be controversial, and said he's still waiting for it to be written up by legislative attorneys.

"There is a problem that needs a solution, and that problem is that you have a vacancy in a public office," he said. "For the active military, I just came down on their side."

It's hard to say what kind of reaction the bill will face, Patterson said.

"The devil is in the details as you work through that, but it's really quite tricky," Patterson said. "Representation is about a trust between you and your constituents."

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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