The Capitol in Salt Lake City is pictured on Thursday, July 10, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
Do Utahns value meritocracy? If congressional district maps are truly fair, then candidates will win on their policy ideas and effort, not only on voter turnout. If we want fair representation, voters must choose the candidates, not maps. I, along with other Utah voters, prefer to elect candidates on their own merits instead of relying on a map skewed in one party’s favor. What Utah voters want is a good-faith effort on the part of their legislators to try. And it’s become apparent that in these meetings that there seems to be very little effort happening.
I attended the first committee hearing on redistricting on Sept. 22, 2025, after Proposition 4 was revived. The first line of the meeting by Sen. Scott Sandall set the tone: “We want to make sure that you understand that we are doing this in compliance with the court orders, and under protest.” This stuck in my mind throughout the rest of the day. Why admit publicly that you don’t care about the will of Utah voters? Utah voters made clear back in 2018 their thoughts regarding redistricting and congressional maps when Proposition 4 was passed. Why protest what the people voted into law — that maps must be drawn without partisan bias? I was and still am highly offended by Sen. Sandall’s comments…