On March 8, the Utah Senate passed SB 165 with only one “no” vote. It outlaws electronic signatures on petitions for initiatives, new parties, or candidates. Last year the Utah Supreme Court had construed Utah laws to allow electronic signatures on petitions for candidates, in a case called Anderson v Bell, 234 P.3d 1147. UPDATE: on March 9, the House passed the bill also.

The bill also slightly increases the number of signatures needed for initiatives, from 10% of the last regularly-scheduled gubernatorial vote, to 10% of the last presidential vote. This is a slight change, because Utah gubernatorial regularly-scheduled elections are in presidential years. One wonders why the change was made. It only increases the number of signatures for statewide initiatives by 685 signatures. Utah did have a special gubernatorial election in 2010, because the previous governor had resigned, but the law already excluded using special gubernatorial elections for the calculation of how many signatures are needed. Thanks to Paul Jacob for this news.