On May 3, a Utah state trial court ruled that Layne Bangerter cannot run for Lieutenant Governor in the June 25 Republican primary. Bangerter is the running mate of Phil Lyman, the Republican candidate for Governor who has been endorsed by the state party. In Utah, candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor run as a team in both the primary and the general election. Now Lyman was quickly choose a new running mate. See this story.
The Utah Constitution residency requirement requires five years residence in Utah. Bangerter argued that means any five years of his life, but the state argued that means the five years immediately before filing for office. Bangerter lived most of his life in Utah, but he lived in Idaho during most of the past five years.
The Utah Constitution provides:
“and has been a resident citizen of the State for five years [i]next[/i] preceding the election.”
Bangerter argued that other State constitutions use words like “immediately”, but his reading would make the word “next” superfluous. The current provision has been in the Utah Constitution since the original 1895 version.
A quirk in Utah is that it does not have a Secretary of State, with the Lieutenant Governor administering elections. The current Lieutenant Governor, Deidre Henderson, is running for re-election with the current governor, Spencer Cox, so technically she was ruling on the eligibility of her opponent. She did use an independent advisor.
Cannot run, or cannot take office?
@AC,
A filing officer may not accept an application if the person is not qualified to hold the office.
The statute requires the filer to state that they are qualified for the office. Bangerter also argued that his statement that he is qualified should prevail. But the statute appears for the filing officer to make an independent judgment.
I think that’s how the phrase next preceding was used back in the day. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it used that way. Old constitution, or how old?
@Jack,
“next” was in the original Utah Constitution of 1895, and that language has never been amended.
‘next’ means adjacent to. The residency period is adjacent to the term of the office.
Oddly the Utah Constitution’s for the legislature uses modern terms such as immediately and consecutive. But the original version does not even use “next”. It would be plausible to interpret the original constitution as permitting three years of residence at any time prior to election.
It would not surprise me if Bangerter had argued before the court that the legislative provisions demonstrated that the language could be made unambiguous, and therefore the executive provisions should be interpreted liberally.
Next adjacent to -> immediate, next to