
Utah’s Independent Redistricting Commission
February 18, 2021
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 News) – In 2018, organizations like Better Boundaries pushed to get Proposition 4 on the ballot to allow the public a greater say in who represents them in government. The proposition passed and asked for the establishment of the Independent Redistricting Commission, which was named on Monday. Noah Rosenberg, the Executive…

Utah has its independent commission to help redraw voting boundaries for the coming decade
February 18, 2021
Gov. Spencer Cox named Brigham Young University professor Rex Facer as chair of Utah’s independent redistricting commission Monday, while legislative leaders named former Rep. Rob Bishop and two former state lawmakers to the panel. Facer is an associate professor of public management in the Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics, where he teaches in…

Utah’s redistricting committee is now formed. Here’s the biggest hurdle it will face
February 11, 2021
SALT LAKE CITY — Over two years after Utah voters narrowly passed a proposition to create an independent commission for the purpose of creating redistricting lines in the state, the members of that committee were finally revealed this week. The seven-person committee will be chaired by Rex Facer, an associate professor of public management in…

The perfect cure for pandemic boredom: Drawing Utah’s congressional districts
April 8, 2020
SALT LAKE CITY — Have you run out of table space for your pandemic-therapy jigsaw puzzles? Are Rubik’s Cubes just too easy? Already a whiz on every aspect of the $2 trillion congressional stimulus package? Do you find the theory of relativity boringly simplistic? Are you secretly glad for social distancing because you no longer…

Utah lawmakers, Better Boundaries explain how they’ve compromised on the anti-gerrymandering law
February 28, 2020
By: Bethany RodgersPublished February 27th, 2020 Updated:February 28th, 2020 Utah’s independent redistricting commission will have to adopt their own anti-gerrymandering standards before drawing maps for congressional, legislative and other voting districts under a compromise unveiled Thursday. Better Boundaries, a group fighting to preserve Proposition 4, and state lawmakers announced the deal during an amicable news…

Overwhelming number of Utahns want lawmakers to leave Prop. 4 alone
August 28, 2019
26 August 2019 More than sixty percent of Utah voters want Prop 4 to be implemented exactly as it was written and passed in the 2018 General Election, according to a recent poll published by Utah Policy Daily and conducted by Y2 Analytics. The poll “finds that 63 percent of Utah voters don’t want Herbert…

Record editorial: U.S. Supreme Court ruling casts uncertainty on redistricting reform in Utah
August 14, 2019
Opinion – June 30th, 2019 The judicial branch delivered a blow to democracy Thursday as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal courts have no authority to determine the constitutionality of partisan gerrymandering. It was a confounding development for people all over the country who believe elections should be fair and that, as the saying…

Tribune Editorial: Bad Supreme Court ruling does not have to hurt Utah
July 31, 2019
By The Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board · “He became so powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which eventually, of course, he did.” — Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, “Revenge of the Sith” The Supreme Court of the United States says it is helpless to defend a basic tenant of…

In our opinion: Partisan gerrymandering is wrong, but states have the power to fix it
July 24, 2019
Deseret News editorial board The Supreme Court ruling that partisan gerrymandering is not prohibited by the Constitution should not be construed as an endorsement of the practice, which the majority opinion concedes can lead to districting practices that “seem reasonably unjust.” Permissible though it may be, the practice of gerrymandering remains destructive to the…