2025 Legislative Session Week 6

What this episode covers

With just a week left in the 2025 Utah Legislative Session, lawmakers still have a lot of bills to debate and consider. Several deal with elections and ballots in the Beehive State. HB563 is sponsored by House Speaker Mike Schultz and changes how ballot titles and analysis are written for proposed constitutional amendments. Currently, legislative leaders craft the language, but this bill would shift that responsibility to non-partisan lawyers who work for the legislature. The move follows a Utah Supreme Court opinion in Fall of 2024 that found the ballot language used on Amendment D was "inaccurate". Our expert panel discusses how this proposal actually puts back in place an old system. Lawmakers are also debating changes to the state's vote-by-mail system. HB 300, sponsored by Rep. Jefferson Burton (R-Salem), would require Utah voters to opt-in to receive ballots in the mail. We examine the timeline it would take to implement, and why proponents say the bill will increase election security. This week the Chief Justice of the Utah Supreme Court delivered a letter to legislative leadership in which he expressed concern about efforts to change the state's judicial branch. We explore the arguments for and against HB512, a bill sponsored by Rep. Karianne Lisonbee (R-Davis County) that would allow the legislature to weigh in on judicial performance evaluations. Host Jason Perry is joined by Representative Karen Peterson, a Republican from Davis County and House Vice Rules Chair — Representative Greg Miller, a Democrat from Salt Lake County — and Dr. Damon Cann, a political science professor at Utah State University. Funding for The Hinckley Report is made possible in part by Merit Medical and by the financial contributions of PBS Utah members. If you would like to support the work we do, please visit https://pbsutah.org/supporthinckley

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