On February 14, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed SB 170. It moves the petition deadline for independent candidates for office other than president from mid-March to March 4, for 2022. And for years in the future, it moves it to January 6 of election years.
Even more shocking, it moves the presidential independent deadline to January of election years as well. The old independent presidential petition deadline was August 15.
Utah lost a case in U.S. District Court in 1984 over the independent presidential deadline. LaRouche v Monson, 599 F.Supp. 621. In that case, the state admitted its old April 15 deadline was too early. The basis for the 1984 decision was that in 1983, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled in Anderson v Celebrezze that Ohio’s March 20 presidential independent deadline was too early.
Utah also lost a deadline lawsuit in 2017, United Utah Party v Cox, 268 F.3d 1227. In that case, the petition deadline for a new party to participate in a special election, six months before that special election, was held unconstitutional.
The 2022 primary is June 28. Courts have unanimously held that non-presidential independent candidate petition deadlines can’t be earlier than the primary.
How soon before deadlines are the day after prior general election day ???
Thus, another good argument for optional filing fees. If they are going to keep changing the window for petitioning earlier and earlier, they should just give all candidates the option of paying a filing fee,instead of trying to conduct a petition drive in an unseasonable period of time.