New law moves up filing window for candidates to declare campaigns - The Park Record

People looking to launch a formal campaign for public office this year must now file their paperwork a few days earlier after the Utah Legislature passed a bill with support from both political parties.

S.B. 170, which is aimed at amending the election schedule, was signed by Gov. Spencer Cox on Monday. Its adoption moves the candidate filing window for this year’s election from March 7-11 to Feb. 28-March 4. After this year, the filing period will be even earlier, during the first week in January, for elections in even-numbered years.

Under the previous deadline, some individuals may not have officially declared their intent to run before the Republican and Democrat parties held caucus events throughout the state, according to Summit County Clerk Evelyn Furse. It became challenging for the public to know who all the potential candidates were going into those events.

Locally, the Summit County Republican Party caucus is scheduled March 8, while the Summit County Democrat Party’s is slated for March 22.

“Both the major parties are supporting it because they do think it would be better for the public to know who those candidates are before they go to caucus and select their delegates to the county and state convention,” Furse said.

Furse doesn’t anticipate the change to this year’s candidate filing period will have much of an impact on public participation and said her office has been working to inform the community.

The new candidate filing period also doesn’t affect people who are gathering signatures to gain access to the ballot.

“Those deadlines are still the same, it just means if you’re signature-gathering you have to do this too — which the people who are signature-gathering knew that,” she said. “Anyone who has registered for signature-gathering has been specifically told that the deadline has changed because we at least know who that group of people is.”

Summit County voters will be tasked with selecting two people for the Summit County Council, as well as selecting the county attorney, sheriff, clerk and auditor in the local election. Two open school board seats for each district will also appear on the ballot.

Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson, Sheriff Justin Martinez, Clerk Evelyn Furse, Auditor Michael Howard and County Council Chair Chris Robinson all announced their intent to run for reelection. Councilor Glenn Wright will not seek another term.

There are also several state legislative races on the ballot. In Summit County, voters will help decide races in Senate District 20 and House Districts 4, 23, 59 and 68. They’ll also have a say in three congressional races: the 1st and 3rd congressional districts, as well as the contest for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Mike Lee. The state treasurer position and two seats on the Utah State Board of Education will also be decided.

source: https://www.parkrecord.com/news/summit-county/new-law-moves-up-filing-window-for-candidates-to-declare-campaigns/

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