What constitutional amendments will Utahns vote on in November?

Amendment D, one of the four proposed constitutional amendments on Utah’s November ballot has been been voided by the court and another, Amendment A, is likely to meet the same fate. So will voters end up considering any changes to the Utah Constitution this election year?
Yes, says a spokeswoman for the Republican-controlled Utah House.
“The Legislature passed Amendments B and C, directed the L.G. (Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson) to put them on the ballot, which she did, and votes on those amendments will take place and be counted,” the legislative spokeswoman, Alexa Musselman, told the Deseret News.
Yet none of the four proposed additions appear to have met the constitutional requirement for notifying voters, through the Legislature publishing the amendments “in at least one newspaper in every county of the state, where a newspaper is published, for two months immediately preceding the next general election.”
That led Utah Education Association President Renée Pinkney to question recently why any of the amendments were going forward after Amendment D was voided based on the lack of notification and what opponents have termed deceptive ballot language. The UEA is challenging Amendment A on the same grounds.
“When the argument was made that constitutional Amendment D hadn’t been published in papers in every county and it’s constitutionally mandated, I was quite surprised that A, B and C were not just (rejected) out of hand… that these are not going to count because all four of them are in the same situation,” Pinkney said.
The four amendments seek to make these changes to the Utah Constitution:
The first three amendments were passed by the 2023 Legislature with at least a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate, while Amendment D was the product of a special session in August, called after the Utah Supreme Court allowed a gerrymandering lawsuit challenging the Legislature’s 2021 redistricting process to go forward.
Amendment D was voided in September by a judge, a decision upheld last week by the Utah Supreme Court in a brief ruling issued just hours after the appeal was heard. The ruling indicated an opinion from the high court would follow.
The Amendment A challenge is set to be heard Oct. 15 in 3rd District Court. It’s too late to alter the ballot, but Amendment D votes won’t be counted. The deadline for reprogramming voting machines not to count votes cast in the general election has already passed in Salt Lake County and will come in other parts of the state by Oct. 8, but a court could order the totals not be released.
Chris Peterson, a University of Utah law school professor who teaches constitutional law, said the situation is confusing for voters.
“By ignoring the Constitution’s plain language on amendment procedures, the Legislature has cast serious doubt about whether votes for any of the four amendments are legally valid,” said Peterson, the 2020 Democratic gubernatorial nominee. “Of course the Legislature has the right to propose constitutional amendments. But they have to follow the rules in the Constitution to do so.”
He said while Amendments B and C can move forward unless a legal challenge surfaces, “there remains a serious and unresolved constitutional challenge. Why is that the case? Well, because the Constitution itself says that before the amendment can take place, the Legislature has to follow some notification procedures. Those procedures are a bit old and haven’t been updated.”
So how the Utah Supreme Court might deal with Amendments B and C is “legally ambiguous and bit of a conundrum,” Peterson said, adding “it would be great if the Legislature took responsibility for removing them from the current election and circling back and trying this all again and actually following the rules next time around.”
Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, who sponsored the resolution putting Amendment A on the ballot, had little to say about the legal challenge to it from the teachers union.
“I think the notice requirement will cause Amendment A to fail as well so I’m not sure there will be much to discuss,” he said. As for Amendments B and C, McCay said both “likely have the same issues but they don’t have challengers.” But would they be vulnerable to future legal challenges? McCay doesn’t think so.
“Once the vote occurs, I have a hard time believing the courts would undo a vote. However, there are interesting times and Utah courts are interesting these days,” the state senator said. He added he plans to talk to lawmakers about possibly making changes to the notice requirement “since newspapers may not be published in the future.”
Any change would mean amending the constitution, which requires voter approval. McCay said he’s still open to what that might look like. “The notice probably should be on more than a government website but I’m not sure how it should be done yet. I’d welcome some ideas.”