H.B. 361 Elections Provisions Amendments

What this bill does

H.B. 361 reorganizes Utah's election laws and standardizes election notice requirements and candidate filing periods. It also removes county clerks' names from ballot envelopes starting January 2027, lets candidates use a commonly used name on the ballot without five signatures, and sets some election deadlines in business days.

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Every vote

• 10 yes, 0 no, 2 absentHouse Government Operations Committee: vote to change the bill · Feb 25, 2026Who voted how
• 10 yes, 0 no, 2 absentHouse Government Operations Committee: vote to approve it · Feb 25, 2026Who voted how
• 67 yes, 0 no, 8 absentFinal House vote · Feb 27, 2026Who voted how
• 6 yes, 0 no, 1 absentSenate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee: vote to change the bill · Mar 3, 2026Who voted how
• 6 yes, 0 no, 1 absentSenate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee: vote to approve it · Mar 3, 2026Who voted how
• 27 yes, 0 no, 2 absentFinal Senate vote · Mar 6, 2026Who voted how
• 63 yes, 1 no, 11 absentHouse vote to accept the other chamber's changes · Mar 6, 2026

Hearings and debates

• Feb 25, 2026 House Government Operations Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (39 turns)

  1. Rep. Lisa Shepherd2:23:04

     Shepherd, HB 360 1 elections office Oversight amendments. Go ahead when you're ready. Do deja vu. I feel like I was just here two weeks. Ooh, you guys get back in the room. Hurry. This is, this is gonna be good. Well, thank you so much. I everyone should have received a copy of the third substitute bill analysis. I passed that out to you earlier, a couple hours ago. And thank you to ki for getting that ready for us. And so I'll be speaking to the third sub. And, uh, you might remember most of us here on the interim, I'm on interim Goops as well with you, that, uh, my co-presenter, the elections director, Ryan Cowley, came in. He presented a, a selection of ideas of, of ways from the Lieutenant Governor's office and elections office within the Lieutenant Governor's office. I should put it, the right way of, of things that they needed to do that would make things better for us in the election realm. And I was asked to take that bill from the committee chairs. However, there was a real busy time, and we didn't get it through the committee at that time. It was in November. And so I was asked to still run the bill, and I wanted to, we finally got it here. And this bill does a lot of consolidating and rearranging. And I am actually really, I'm, I'm excited about this Bill. I still wanted to carry it. And I just actually would like to turn the time to Ryan just to kind of go over the, the main highlights of it, and then you can ask any questions. Would that be okay, Mr. Chair? Yes. Thank you.

  2. Ryan Cowley, Director of Elections, Lt. Governor's Office2:24:41

     All right. Thank you. Um, my name's Ryan Callway. I'm the Director of Elections in the Lieutenant Governor's office. Um, this bill is really a long bill and a heavy bill, but a lot of it is really technical cleanup. There are a couple of policy things. Um, we usually try to steer pretty clear of policy, but there are a couple of policy here in the cleanup. And I'll, I'll just go really high level because I know we're already late. And then if there's areas that you have questions or want to dive a little bit deeper in, um, certainly we can, we can do that. Um, so this overhauls basically all of the election notices right now, when clerks go to do a notice, um, sometimes there's five, six sections of code that they have to go to to pull in the information. This basically just clarifies each notice and kind of gives one standard area that they can go to to, so when they go to do a notice of election, there's one section of code and it's all there. Um, with the municipal and special district elections, um, the code kind of gets changed in one area and not another. And so those are typically run in the odd years. And like on the filing period this past year, they ended on different days even though the code really is intended to have those be, um, congruent. So this just clarifies that, consolidates that. So if you're, um, doing special district election stuff in an odd year, it follows the municipal calendar in an even year, it would follow the regular calendar. Um, I think one of the really good things in this notice is we do a certification of, um, candidates for the primary election. Um, but in that notice that we do, it also includes like all the local school boards, things like that. And we just really don't have the knowledge in the Lieutenant Governor's office that the county clerks do. So we kind of make our notice in this be the federal candidates, the state candidates, legislature, school board, and then the counties will follow that up with their own certification. And that'll be noticed as a public notice, um, so that everybody can see, okay, here's what the state has, here's what the county has. Um, the other thing with that notice is it had, um, candidates who would be in the general election, but not a primary. And so it was just kind of confusing for everybody. So this just kind of clarifies those different, um, notices. I think another policy that's really important here is municipalities and special districts can cancel elections if there's uncontested races, um, currently under statute that could happen within 20 days of the election. Um, so if they cancel it 20 days ballots are already prepared. They're mailed 21 days before the election. You can see the problem and confusion that creates. And so what we did is we have the cities now creating a certification of candidates that's roughly about 10 days after the write-in deadline. And during that window, if a municipality or district wants to cancel their election, they're able to, but they need to do it in that window, which is, um, probably roughly 60, 65 days before the election. And then the certification that the cities do will have that, Hey, our election's canceled. So just kind of clarifies that and puts it forward. Um, a couple of other, um, things in here, uh, for example, deceased voters. We remove those from our voter rolls. One section of code says 10 days. One of those says five days. We get those within five days. We're just clarifying those, those types of things. Um, a policy, um, that's in here is clerks right now. Um, their names don't appear on the ballots and things like that, but they can appear on the ballot envelopes. And so starting in 2027, they've already printed, a lot of the counties have printed their ballot or envelopes for this year. So starting next year, that would be prohibited. So it'd just be back to the Salt Lake County Clerk's office, the Elections Office, something like that. So voters can still get that, but it won't have the candidate or the clerk who's potentially a candidate on there. Um, I think that's getting pretty close to all of it. Um, one of the last kind of policy things is the lieutenant governor is the keeper of the great sill. Uh, we do have a rule that governs that and kind of sets some of the policies around that, how it can be used so that it isn't used for political purposes. Somewhere along the way, the authority to have a rule to do those things was kind of lost in the code, and we don't know where that went. And so this bill has that back in here so that we do have that ability to create a rule for the great sale. Thank you. Could I speak just a little bit more on one part of it? Yeah. Thank you. It'll just be a second. Um, I actually really agree with the policy that, uh, that we're not allowing to have our clerk's names on the envelopes because I do feel that that is a conflict of interest. And yes, guys know I keep trying to get rid of conflicts of interest in our codes. So thank you. That completes our presentation.

  3. Acting Chair Maloy2:29:04

     Great, thank you. Okay, we're gonna bring it to the committee for clarifying questions.

  4. Rep. Paul A. Cutler2:29:09

     Representative Cutler. Thank you. I assume this Disability is sending a separate postcard with the, our notification that had the clerk's information on it. Wait, uh, sometimes you get a postcard that has your registration on it as, as a preliminary notification, not the ballot itself.

  5. Ryan Cowley, Director of Elections, Lt. Governor's Office2:29:30

     Yeah. So this wouldn't address, we wouldn't address that. Yeah. Yeah.

  6. Rep. Paul A. Cutler2:29:33

     Did we address that somewhere else? Because wasn't that the, one of the problems we had a year or two ago was a separate postcard. It wasn't the actual ballot info, but it was an Official, there is a, I I don't remember the exact thing.

  7. Ryan Cowley, Director of Elections, Lt. Governor's Office2:29:47

     Sorry, Mr. Chair. Can I address that? Um, yeah, I I do remember that because there was one of the counties that kind of put a, a flyer that had maybe a little bit more political Right. Maybe a picture Influence to it. And I know that was addressed. This is just specifically the envelope. It doesn't address anything else. But we could look at that because I know there was a bill that kind of addressed, I thought we fixed That the political If not next year.

  8. Acting Chair Maloy2:30:13

     Okay. Great. Thank you, Representative Stoddard.

  9. Rep. Andrew Stoddard2:30:16

     Thank you, Mr. Chair Malloy. Um, are there any protections in the bill so that we don't get a rogue election officer misusing the great seal of the state of Utah In this bill? No, it's simply the rule making authority back in. Yeah, because on, on a principle I'm against rulemaking authority. I withdraw my question.

  10. Unknown speaker2:30:42speaker not certain

      Okay. Put tape over his thing here so we never calling him again.

  11. Acting Chair Maloy2:30:47

      Okay. Uh, Representative MacPherson.

  12. Rep. Matt MacPherson2:30:50

      Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, uh, thank you. I just have a quick question on lines. Uh, 1254 looks like there's an adjustment when it comes to a legislative, uh, vacancy, changing it from the requirements as well as the la uh, August 31st for a filing period to the last business day. What is that actually gonna change anything as far ashin lines or deadlines today? Because I know August 31st might not fall on a business day. So does this actually moving up those timelines or in practice, is that already the case or how does that work?

  13. Ryan Cowley, Director of Elections, Lt. Governor's Office2:31:27

      You want me to address that one? Sure. Okay. Um, in, in all practicality, all it does is, um, last year there was the bill, um, Representative Peterson ran that changed the computation of time. So instead of that, having that fall on a Saturday, now it just is the last business day. So in all practicality, I mean, it could move it a day or two, but it, the intent here is just to really have it be that last day of August. And if, uh, previously, if, if the last day in August did fall and it was not a business day, and so an attempted to file, they just couldn't, uh, even though I guess the previous language said maybe they could, but there was no way to actually do it, is that, Yeah. So prior to last year, it would've just gone to the next business day. So if it was the 31st of August was a Saturday, and that was the deadline, it would've gone to the following Monday. Um, with that change, now it makes it a Sunday and there just isn't good government isn't there on a Sunday to do filing. So it's just kind of one of those things that

  14. Rep. Matt MacPherson2:32:24

      Okay. Materially it doesn't change the substance of It. Okay. Thank you.

  15. Acting Chair Maloy2:32:31

      Okay. Thank you. Um, I don't see any other lights, but I have a couple of questions. Um, Mr.

  16. Acting Chair Maloy2:32:39

      Callie, uh, I think it was about a year ago, I came to your office and we were talking about the, uh, the, the deaths and making sure that they were recorded and communicated to the L G's office. Do you re recall that meeting? I do, yes. Because I ran a bill that ensured that those were getting to the LGS office a few years ago. And, uh, but I think our discussion was that it wasn't happening. So we were getting all of these records in of people who've died in the state of Utah, but they were not getting to you, to your office to get them removed from the, the voter's records because they're deceased. And, uh, do you recall that issue? I do, yes. And, uh, what was the timeframe that we had put in place for that? Um, we, we put in five days and there was one area of the code that remained at 10 days. And so this puts it all at the five days. Okay. So, okay. So we're correcting that in this bill. Correct. But to me, whether it's five days or 10 days, it wasn't happening. And, uh, uh, and so I, I guess my question is, as we make all of these changes to the code and stuff, where are we making sure that there's enforcement, that the things that we put into law are happening? Because I was really, I was hearing all the complaints about dead people voting in our elections, and I was just like, well, wait a minute. We fixed that just a couple years ago. And that's what prompted me to come meet with you to talk about that. And so, in my, in my opinion, it comes down to enforcement of the policies that we put in place as it relates to our elections. 'cause it's one thing to do the right things to make sure our elections are sound, we have integrity, there's no fraud or all of the things that we hear about. Right. Um, it's another not to enforce 'em after we put 'em in, in there for the right reasons. So, uh, to the sponsor and to Mr. Callie, uh, can you address the enforcement aspect of all of this?

  17. Ryan Cowley, Director of Elections, Lt. Governor's Office2:34:46

      Yeah. Are you good if I start? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Um, and we, we came and did a presentation during the summer, during the interim. Um, the audit did find that there was, I believe it was 400, um, individuals who were deceased that were still on the voter rolls. Um, so what we, what we did is that audit kind of left us a little bit short, and we had asked for that to kind of go into the reasons why, like, great, we found that number, but what are the reasons why? And we found that there were three areas that we've now, um, addressed and done internally to, to fix that. One of those was we didn't get certain files from vital records. And so now we've worked it out with vital records. So periodically, at least 90 days before the election is how the statute reads for enforcement purposes. So at least 90 days before we get a full file from vital records of everybody who's deceased, rather than just the incremental of saying, Hey, this person's died within the last two weeks. Now we get the whole thing. And so we do, outside of the system, we do a verification to ensure that all of those people have been removed. So that was one type of, um, an issue that we found. Another was, sometimes clerks would just make a mistake. They go through and they look and it would notify 'em that they were deceased and for whatever reason, they couldn't find an obituary or decided not to remove that individual. We also catch that up with that rollup file. Mm-hmm. And then the, the third one, and this one was kind of an interesting one, is our system would match a deceased voter and identify it for the clerk. But what we found is it was identifying it where they passed away. So if somebody had passed away, say in, um, St. George, but they lived in Kanab, it would identify that voter in Washington County. So the Washington County clerk would look through that and be like, I don't have a voter who matches that. And so we've now since corrected that, and the code requires our office to do a check 90 days before each election, and that's the enforcement component. Um, so that we're able to, um, catch that and prevent that. And we've done a lot of cleanup on that front, and I'm happy to share that presentation again with you as well.

  18. Acting Chair Maloy2:36:40

      Well, uh, and I think I, I guess my concern is not necessarily this, I was using this as an example, but, uh, we've put a lot of policies in place, a lot of changes. This is one of 'em. Uh, and you're doing a lot here. Um, I just want to just make sure that we're implementing and then enforcing that the changes that we put into place, whether it's at your level, uh, at the county clerk's level or whatever, because, uh, we just cannot have these policies put into place. And then several months later, a year later, find out that nothing's been done. And, uh, so I'm just throwing that out there for you, uh, representative mostly because, uh, I did a big bill like this a few years ago, and then you start finding out the things that you worked so hard on didn't get enforced. And so, you know, we, I think we need to be vigilant and work towards that. And I think, you know, Ryan's great guy, love Ryan and and stuff, but we gotta keep an eye on him and the clerks and everybody to make sure that these things are happening because we're doing them for the right reasons for the people of Utah. And we're doing a disservice to the people of Utah if we put 'em in place and then they're not enforced or working. So I'll just throw that out there for you. Thank you. That's all I have to say. Okay.

  19. Acting Chair Maloy2:38:05

      So with that, uh, we'll open it up to public comment. Anybody from the public come on up. Brian. Anybody else?

  20. Brian McKenzie, Davis County Clerk2:38:18

      Thank you, Mr. Chair. Brian McKenzie, Davis County Clerk. Uh, I'm here to speak in favor of this bill. Appreciate the work of, uh, Representative Shepherd on this. Uh, it is a very big bill. There's a lot of, uh, deep, um, notice, uh, portion of that. I, I spent a really good share of my time reading through that and making sure what it was. It does require some additional notices, but I think they're good notices. Uh, and so thank you for that. Uh, if I can also, I once wanted to provide some information for Representative Cutler. Uh, HB 5 51 last year addressed that concern about elected officials, uh, utilizing government funds to publicize certain information within a certain number of days before an election. So yes, that was, that was addressed. And then, uh, representative Malloy, uh, to address your concerns about enforcement is specifically about our deceased voters. Uh, as part of those policies and, and laws that are put in place, uh, now a county clerk has to certify on a monthly basis, uh, to the Lieutenant Governor, uh, a governor's office, that we are removing those deceased records and certifying that it's been done within five days. Uh, that certification has to happen on a monthly basis. Uh, and then also within statute, the Lieutenant Governor's office does have that responsibility to kind of come back and double check that work. Uh, the, the results of those, uh, monthly certifications are also posted online, uh, to make sure that it's transparent. And so anybody can go and, and see, um, what the county clerks are doing. That's just one of the components of our voter list maintenance that we're required to do on a monthly basis and certify. So hopefully that will help answer your question. I agree with you completely. Uh, there are a number of policies that the legislature has put in place, and it is important that we verify, uh, that, uh, number one, they have been implemented. And, um, number two, that we are doing exactly what you've asked us to do.

  21. Acting Chair Maloy2:39:58

      Great. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? Okay. We have our friend Seth Stewart. Everybody's wondering where you're, you've been at Seth, so it's all yours. You got about two minutes?

  22. Seth Stewart2:40:17

      Yeah. Sorry. I'm glad to be regarded as a friend. Feelings mutual. Um, yeah, I, and it's unfortunate 'cause the audio actually cuts out for just a second as I'm transitioning to the, uh, panelist role. So there, there are parts of what you say that I can't hear during that period, but, um, yeah. I'm Seth Stewart. I'm representing myself and, uh, from American Fork. And I just have, uh, one question. I am, pardon? I'm trying to find the line number. It's 1856 in sub three. Um, uh, it was a lot to cover. Uh, I understand. Uh, but the, I don't know if this was covered yet. 1856, uh, the election officer shall store the election material in a secure location that is physically separate from a location where the election officer stores ballots and election returns. And my question there was just, um, was, was, was that addressed already of why, why that language was scratched of the, the physical separation and, uh, the, the, that is physically separate from where the election officer stores ballots. So that was my question. Thank you.

  23. Acting Chair Maloy2:41:17

      Great. Thank you. Okay. So, uh, anybody else? Anybody else? Last call. All right. We're gonna close public, uh, comment and bring it back to the committee for further action and discussion. And I'm told we have to adopt the third sub. Yep. Correct Representative? Yes. Third set. Third sub. Yes. Okay. Representative Romero.

  24. Rep. Angela Romero2:41:52

      Thank you, Mr. Chair. I, I move that we adopt, um, the third substitute for HB 360 1.

  25. Acting Chair Maloy2:42:00

      Great. Thank you. So the, uh, motion is to adopt the third substitute of HB 360 1 elections Office oversight amendments. And we'll go to the sponsor If you want. Okay. Do you, uh, want to respond to that sponsor, Representative Shepherd?

  26. Rep. Lisa Shepherd2:42:27

      Well, thank you for the motion. The motion, yes. Thank you for the motion. It's a great motion. Um, I do wanna say though, in the sub we are, it's titled Election Provision Amendments. Election Division Amendments. Okay. Election. Oh, that has a new title and there's, Or am I looking at it wrong? Oh, yeah, I needed to pull that up. Okay. It says Election provisions, Election provisions amendments. So you still have to say, you still have to say the original votes and then the third sub. Okay.

  27. Acting Chair Maloy2:43:02

      Okay. So the, Yeah, so we'll just say the motion. Okay. So the, uh, motion to, to clarify is, uh, to adopt substitute number three of HB 360 1 elected provisions amendments. Does that sound better? Okay. Good. Takes me a second to catch up. Uh, okay. So discussion to the motion. Anybody that would like to discuss this motion, seeing none will go back to the maker of the motion I serve on the audit committee. So this is a lot of the recommendations that were made in some of the audits that I've over. So I think it's a good, good move. Great. Thank you. Okay. So we will take a voice vote. All in favor of adopting the third substitute, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. The, uh, substitute is adopted.

  28. Acting Chair Maloy2:43:58

      We'll go back to Representative Romero.

  29. Rep. Angela Romero2:44:00

      Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move that we pass out, um, third substitute HB 360 1 elections Election Pro elections provisions Amendments with a favorable recommendation.

  30. Acting Chair Maloy2:44:13

      Great. And we will go to the sponsor.

  31. Rep. Lisa Shepherd2:44:17

      Thank you. Uh, thank you for that motion. And I would've made it too if I was a member of the committee, because I think this is a really excellent bill. And so thank you. But I just wanted just to just say one thing actually, is that it's really wonderful to work with the Lieutenant Governor's office on a huge bill. Um, usually you guys oppose everything I do. So this is like a really wonderful thing here. And so getting to work with Mr. Callie and Shelly and Cambria on this bill has been really good. So thank you. Thanks for letting me take this bill. So my exper uh, experience, Ryan's always been great. Is Brian, it was the hard one. I didn't work with Brian on this bill. Just Ryan, So, okay. Great.

  32. Acting Chair Maloy2:44:58

      Thank you. Does that conclude your sum? Yes, it

  33. Rep. Lisa Shepherd2:45:00

      Does. Thank you. Alright.

  34. Acting Chair Maloy2:45:01

      We do have room for discussion if anybody would like to say anything about this. If not, we will go back to the maker of the motion.

  35. Rep. Angela Romero2:45:09

      I'll waive. Okay. Great. Alright.

  36. Acting Chair Maloy2:45:11

      So the motion is to pass with a favorable recommendation, HB 360 1 third substitute elected provisions amendments. We'll take a voice vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. The bill passes. Thank you. Thank you.

  37. Unknown speaker2:45:30speaker not certain

      Thank you. Turn. She wants her mic off. Who said it?

  38. Acting Chair Maloy2:45:39

      Okay. Okay, so we have a motion to adjourn. Uh, no discussion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. We are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.

  39. Acting Chair Maloy2:45:49

      Thank you for the opportunity to chair again. It's like coming back to my old hometown. I was.

• Feb 27, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (8 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)8:03

     Third substitute House Bill 360 1 Elections Provisions Amendments by Representative Shepherd. This bill was assert in government operations with a vote. 10 0 2 Representative Shepherd.

  2. Rep. Lisa Shepherd8:14

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. This bill was introduced back in the interim with the Government Operations Committee. I was assigned this bill, however, at the time that they were trying to get the final work done on it, that's the time that the maps were being rejected and Lieutenant Governor's office was a little busy. And the SFI would still carry the bill, so I'm still carrying the bill. Um, it's still the same as what we were doing before. It is a, it's a very big bill, but it is a reification and putting all the redundant materials in there on election related notices into one section. So it's very good for that. It's standardizing declaration of candidacy periods. And one of the best features of this bill, Mr. Speaker, is that it takes the names off of the envelopes for the county clerk. So county clerks will no longer have their names on the envelopes, starting with January of 2027. And that's my presentation. Mr. Speaker.

  3. Speaker (presiding)9:08

     Thank you representative discussion to the bill. Let's go. Representative Cutler.

  4. Rep. Paul A. Cutler9:13

     Thank you Mr. Speaker on a rise in support of this bill. The sponsor's done some, uh, impressive work on this and this will help move our, uh, uh, elections forward in a safe and secure manner.

  5. Speaker (presiding)9:23

     Thank you Representative Cutler. Further discussion to the bill. Seeing none. Back to Representative Shepherd for summation.

  6. Rep. Lisa Shepherd9:31

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would just like to say it was really great working with the Lieutenant Governor's office on this bill. 'cause usually they are against any motions that I put forward. So this one's a good one and it was a joy working with them. Thank you. I ask for your support.

  7. Speaker (presiding)9:46

     Thank you. Representative Shepherd Voting will now be open on third substitute HB 360 1 vote. Seeing all present, having Representative Snider, would you like to vote? Seeing all president having voted voting is now closed. So substitute HB 360 1 passes Is this body with 67? Yes. Vote zero. No votes to be sent to the Senate for its consideration.

  8. Speaker (presiding)13:30

     Representative Shelley. Thank you Mr. Speaker.

• Mar 3, 2026 Senate Government Operations and Political Subdivisions Committee▶ Watch
  Transcript (23 turns)

  1. Committee chair55:36

     Let's jump back to third substitute house bill 360 1 election provision amendments. Representative Shepherd, we're moving along pretty good, but we still have, uh, a few bills behind you, so

  2. Rep. Lisa Shepherd55:54

     We'll be quick. Okay. Uh, Mr. Chair, is it okay if we pass out a bill analysis? Sure.

  3. Rep. Lisa Shepherd56:02

     Thank you. My interns right there for the legislators Yeah. Staff and then each one of us.

  4. Rep. Lisa Shepherd56:13

     Thank you Mr. Chair for having us on the agenda. It's nice to be back with you. It feels like I was just here yesterday. I will be speaking to the fourth substitute. You are now receiving an analysis thank you to Kirsi for getting this done for us for so quickly. And I have with me as a co-presenter, the state elections Director, Ryan Cowley. And I wanted to thank him and the deputy director, Shelly Jackson and Cambria for all their efforts and work on this bill. This was a interim committee bill that missed the deadline, and we continue to work on it. And here we are. This does some revocations

  5. Committee chair56:49

     Interrupt you first? Yes, we do have a four sub. Are you talking to the four sub?

  6. Rep. Lisa Shepherd56:53

     I'm speaking to four sub. Okay. I'm sorry. Just so we have that have, and then we'll take care of that later. Thank you.

  7. Rep. Lisa Shepherd56:58

     So what this does is centralizes election notices. It aligns candidate filing periods, it converts deadlines into business days. It provides ballot neutrality, which is a great one. That's a policy change. Uh, it clarifies county commission election. So if you have to put down, if your seat A, B, or C and has some special district alignment that I'll let Ryan talk more about and voter roll and election material clarification and the Great seal. So with that just overview, I wanted to turn some time over to Mr. Callie to tell us a little bit more of the details and answer any questions.

  8. Ryan Cowley, Director of Elections, Lt. Governor's Office57:33

     All right. Thank you. I'm Ryan Callie, director of Elections in the Lieutenant Governor's office. Um, and I'll just be very high level if you have further questions, we can dig a little bit deeper into it, but I recognize the, uh, time and the other items on the agenda. Um, so the main thing that this does, um, really it's a cleanup bill that we brought in the interim. Um, one of the main things it does is just kind of, uh, redefines and aligns all of the noticing requirements in elections. Um, for some of the notices that clerks are required to do, it would require them to go to four or five different sections of code and grab different pieces for those notices. And so it just basically aligns and consolidates that. Um, also for the cities as well, um, with the, I think one of the biggest notices or biggest changes that we make here is the lieutenant governor certifies the candidates for the primary election right after, um, the conventions are done. And when we did that, we used to have to, we currently have to include all of the local school board, county commission races, and it's just really hard for us to, to know what goes on in all of those county conventions. Um, and so there was oftentimes those were missed. We'd have to amend those. Um, and so now what it does is we'll do, we'll certify the state races, the federal races, um, legislative races, school board, and then we'll give that to the clerks and then they turn around within two days, they'll do their own certification for the county races local school board. And I think that just really, um, consolidates those. And it also takes off of that primary certification candidates who do not, um, appear in the primary. Currently those are on there. And so clerks as they go and build their ballot, sometimes they've looked at that and thought, you know, Hey, I need to put this candidate on there. But they're unopposed, which primaries don't, um, have unopposed races on them. Those just go to the November election. So it just takes those out. So it's will be a nice clean, um, notice that's put out there. Uh, a couple of other important things that this bill does. Um, it takes in statute right now we're required to remove deceased voters. Um, one part of the code says 10 days. Another part says five days. This dis consolidates that. Um, so it's consistent. So within five days of receiving notice, um, we'll remove those deceased voters. Uh, the declaration of candidacy period for municipalities and special districts. Um, that occurs in June. In odd years this last year, there's two different pieces of code for districts and cities. So the city one started on Monday and ended on Friday the special districts that carried over to Monday. And so it created this weird anomaly. And so in here we've cleaned that up, um, special districts, a lot of those aren't open on Fridays. And so it just makes it so if that filing period ends on a Friday, then it just goes to the next business day of Monday so that everybody has the same filing period so that people aren't confused and think that they have an extra day to file. But then they go to the city and the city's like, no, we, we stopped, um, Friday. Um, the other thing, as the representative mentioned, Representative Shepherd, um, clerks would no longer be allowed to put their name on the, um, ballot material that goes out on the envelope. So it just say, you know, um, Box Elder, county clerk's office or Box Elder election, something like that without the name, just to avoid the appearance of, of electioneering there. And I think that's a positive change. Um, with, uh, objections to declarations of candidacy. There's a time period, it gave us 24 hours to get the objection and make a, a decision on that. That was way too short of a time period. So now it gives us three days. Um, those are the types of things that are in here. And then the last thing that I'll touch on is the great sill. The Lieutenant Governor has a statutory responsibility over the great sill and there's an administrative rule, um, that talks about the use. So it can't be used for campaigning those types of things. And somewhere over time the authority for that administrative rule has just kind of been lost out of the statute. And so we're just asking for that, uh, rulemaking, uh, authority be given back in statute for the lieutenant governor to, to do that. Okay. That concludes our presentation. That okay.

  9. Committee chair1:01:22

     Thank you. Appreciate your work on this. I know from interim and that not getting to be able to get this through that process, uh, for your diligent work on getting done. To me, it, there's a lot of sensible changes there or updating the code, which thank you Ryan, for, for your work. Any other, uh, questions for the committee on this bill? Seeing none, let's go to public comment. We have one in the room. Any others? Okay. We've got one on the line then. So we'll just take these. Oh, we got two in the room. Okay. Go ahead. You know the drill.

  10. Ricky Hatch, Weber County Clerk/Auditor1:02:00

      Thank you Mr. Chair, members of the committee. My name's Ricky Hatch and I'm the county clerk and auditor for Weber County and here representing the clerks, um, in Utah. And we want to, uh, thank Representative Shepherd for her work on this bill. Uh, clerks are in full support of this bill. We like the cleaning up of the, uh, notice requirements. We like the, uh, provisions regarding the name, uh, of, of the county clerks. Clerks are hypersensitive to try to avoid any kind of self-promotion, uh, when it comes to their official duties. Uh, just super careful about that. And so we, uh, like having that, uh, provision codified and formalized so we fully support. Thank you.

  11. Committee chair1:02:42

      Thank you. Next.

  12. Seth Stewart1:02:50

      Alright. Yeah. I'm Seth Stewart. I'm representing myself from American Fork. Oh, sorry. Were we not going? No, go ahead Seth. Okay. Sorry. Um, yeah, I, I just, uh, do have general concerns. Um, um, there was the Secretary of State bill that was run, uh, to try to, I guess, remove some of the centralization of power away from the Lieutenant Governor's office. Um, but I I I'm just concerned that, uh, with additional rulemaking authority concentrated in the office, uh, this could still disadvantage those who are not incumbents and, uh, yeah, just have, have some concerns to that effect. Uh, I've been thinking more about how elections were administered before we got to be so administrative in a top down manner and, uh, I dunno. I, I think we should return to more decentralized elections. So that I'm

  13. Committee chair1:03:44

      Thank you Seth. Alright, last one. Go ahead.

  14. Delane England, Utah Eagle Forum1:03:48

      I'm Delaine England. I am testifying on behalf of Utah Eagle Forum. I, we are speaking in favor of the bill. I did try to find something I didn't like about it, but I love that it has ballot neutrality. I love that it really does clean things up. The consistency of the filing dates for the different municipalities and so we think it's a really great bill. We support it. Thank you.

  15. Committee chair1:04:10

      Thank you. Alright, we'll close the public comment. I need to back up because, uh, we did failed to, uh, take a motion and adopt the four substitute on this bill. Uh, Senator Vickers go to you.

  16. Sen. Evan J. Vickers1:04:25

      Yeah. Thank you Mr. Chair. I would make a motion that we, uh, delete ENT title and body third substitute has both 360 1 replaced with four substitute.

  17. Committee chair1:04:34

      Okay. Any discussion of that since we've been speaking of it. So all those in favor of deleting title and body third substitute three house bill 360 1 and replace it with four substitute house bill 360 1. Say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Now further consideration Senator Vickers. Whoops.

  18. Sen. Evan J. Vickers1:05:03

      Thank you Mr. Chair. I would make a motion that we favorably recommend four substitute hospital 360 1.

  19. Committee chair1:05:09

      Okay. Discussion to that motion. Let's go to the sponsor of Rule Summation.

  20. Sen. Ronald M. Winterton1:05:14

      Thank you. I just wanted to highlight too that there may not not have been any objections right now, but I did have a meeting with members from the office, the elections office, and with some, a concerned citizen. And it really just took some explanation and then they understood that their misperceptions, uh, that we weren't trying to do some of the things they thought we were trying to do. So I think it's really important when there's differences to be able to have those, those questions answered. I also wanted to speak to the rulemaking authority. Some people don't understand that we have a rulemaking authority that we pass on. We are part-time legislature. And the other part of it too is that we have that legislative, which might be called soon, the Government Oversight Committee, which goes over those rules and keeps it tight and look at them. And so I, I am, I have no problems with delegating that duty, um, to those specialists who know how to run those machines. Also, one other just point in my county, we just had that, uh, rather large initiative petition the packets that were being delivered and they actually had to be open on Sunday to receive those packets. So thank you so much for your support for this bill so that they can now be open on Monday instead.

  21. Committee chair1:06:21

      Okay. Well back to Senator Vickers for summation.

  22. Sen. Evan J. Vickers1:06:25

      No, I appreciate the work on it. Uh, waive further for summation. Okay.

  23. Committee chair1:06:29

      The motion is to favorably recommend four substitute house bill 360 1 favorably. All those in favors. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That is unanimous. Thank you. Okay, we've got, um,

• Mar 6, 2026 Senate floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (12 turns)

  1. Sen. Ronald M. Winterton1:25:25

     to business days, ballot nutrition, uh, neutrality in which, uh, the county clerks won't have their names on the ballots anymore. On the return envelopes, it clarifies county commission elections, uh, which race they're actually in, uh, special district, uh, alignments when their elections are take are taking place. And then the voter roll and election material clarification. It gives the county clerks, uh, their instructions. And then in the last thing that it does is the Great Seal regulation, uh, on the duties of, of who handles that. And with that, I'm open for suggestion or Questions. Thank you. Uh, looking for questions, discussions.

  2. Senate President (presiding)1:26:15

     Senator Pitcher to the bill.

  3. Sen. Stephanie Pitcher1:26:17

     Thank you Mr. President. I'd like to, uh, make a motion to move sub five in my name,

  4. Senate President (presiding)1:26:22

     That motion's in order. Go ahead and explain the motion.

  5. Sen. Stephanie Pitcher1:26:26

     Thank you. Uh, this sub, this sub, uh, would include some requested language from county clerks involving, uh, placing a candidate's name on the ballot. It would allow a candidate to use their middle name or their maiden name. That was sort of a, um, unintended consequence of some legislation that was passed last session.

  6. Senate President (presiding)1:26:45

     Okay, so I see amendment one in Senator Winton's name. Is there another amendment that I There be a sub five? Sub Five. Sub five. Her name Sub five. I'm looking for that. So the motion is to substitute, uh, do we have discussion on that Motion to substitute going back to Senator Winterton?

  7. Sen. Ronald M. Winterton1:27:06

     No, I, I agree to that. Yes.

  8. Senate President (presiding)1:27:08

     So that's a friendly, uh, substitution, say no discussion. I'm gonna place the motion. And the motion is to delete and title and Body force substitute house bill 360 1 and replace it with the fifth substitute house Bill 360 1. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Roll, roll up. Motion passes. The bill is substituted. Uh, Senator Winterton Now, uh, any further discussion to the bill? Say no further discussion. Going to Senator Winterton for summation and a motion.

  9. Sen. Ronald M. Winterton1:27:40

     I, I would motion that a fifth substitute a house bill 360 1 pass.

  10. Senate President (presiding)1:27:45

      Thank you. And the question is, under suspension of the role shall fifth substitute house bill three sixty one pass. Roll call vote.

  11. Unknown speaker1:27:50speaker not certain

      Senator Spery Aye. Lein bus Comore Escamia Fillmore Grover Harper Hankins Ipson Johnson. Juab McKay. Mikel Grover Aye. Milner Musman Owens pitcher Plum Rebi Sandal Stevenson Stratton Vickers. Weiler Wilson Winterton Aye. Harper Mikel. President Adams Aye.

  12. Senate President (presiding)1:28:39

      Fifth substitute house Bill 360 1. Having received 27 a votes, zero nay votes, two being absent passes, this body will be signed by, the will be returned to the house for the for further consideration.

• Mar 6, 2026 Senate floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (13 turns)

  1. Senate President (presiding)1:27:45

     Thank you. And the question is, under suspension of the role shall fifth substitute house bill three sixty one pass. Roll call vote.

  2. Unknown speaker1:27:50speaker not certain

     Senator Spery Aye. Lein bus Comore Escamia Fillmore Grover Harper Hankins Ipson Johnson. Juab McKay. Mikel Grover Aye. Milner Musman Owens pitcher Plum Rebi Sandal Stevenson Stratton Vickers. Weiler Wilson Winterton Aye. Harper Mikel. President Adams Aye.

  3. Senate President (presiding)1:28:39

     Fifth substitute house Bill 360 1. Having received 27 a votes, zero nay votes, two being absent passes, this body will be signed by, the will be returned to the house for the for further consideration.

  4. Senate President (presiding)1:28:55speaker not certain

     Third substitute house bill 1 79. Third substitute house bill 1 79, milk amendments.

  5. Sen. Kirk A. Cullimore1:29:02speaker not certain

     Senator Kalimore Milk amendments.

  6. Senate President (presiding)1:29:05

     We're gonna circle this. Go ahead. Senator Wilson.

  7. Sen. Chris H. Wilson1:29:08

     Darn it. Motion to circle sponsors off the floor.

  8. Senate President (presiding)1:29:10

     Motion to circle. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed? No. I am gonna rule it Pass as the bill of circle.

  9. Senate President (presiding)1:29:28

     First substitute house bill four 20. First substitute house bill four 20. Municipal office vacancy modifications. Senator Kwan.

  10. Sen. Karen Kwan1:29:37

      Senator Kwan President. Thank you Mr. President. I'm gonna, uh, also motion to circle.

  11. Senate President (presiding)1:29:44

      Motion to circle. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Rule That motion passes the bill of circle. Thank you.

  12. Senate President (presiding)1:29:53

      Third substitute house bill 94. Third substitute house bill 94. Criminal accounts receivable amendments. Senator Weiler.

  13. Sen. Daniel McCay1:30:01speaker not certain

      Senator Weiler. Thank you Mr. President. Uh, this is a cleanup bill for the court fines, uh, bill that we passed last year. Currently, if someone is ordered to pay a court fine and complete a class or rehabilitative treatment,

• Mar 6, 2026 House floor debate▶ Watch
  Transcript (5 turns)

  1. Speaker (presiding)11:22

     This substitute has Bill 360 1 elections provisions Amendments by Representative Shepherd. Representative Shepherd.

  2. Rep. Lisa Shepherd11:29

     Thank you Mr. Speaker. I move to Concur with the Senate amendments.

  3. Speaker (presiding)11:32

     Thank you representative. Would you like to speak to that motion?

  4. Rep. Lisa Shepherd11:34

     Yes, I would. Thank you. We took some language that was, was very favorably recommended by the other body and uh, there was another bill and we incorporated in there and the language basically allows Representative Maloy to just use his name that he goes by all the time as, as Corey on a ballot, uh, without having to get the five signatures and allows people to use their middle name and a couple other variations in there. And that was a very friendly amendment to it. It was actually a substitute, a friendly substitute.

  5. Speaker (presiding)12:03

     Thank you representative discussion to the motion to concur with the Senate amendments on fifth substitute HB 360 1. See none will go ahead and place the motion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Will that motion passes? Voting will now be open for on fifth substitute HP 360 1. Seeing all present, having voted voting is now closed. Fifth Substitute HB 360 1 passed this body with 63 yes votes one no vote and will be sent to the Senate for the signature of the President. Let's go to Representative Bollinger.