Utah legislative leaders express regret over Amendment D’s ‘misleading’ ballot language

House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, is pictured during a press conference at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

Both House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, told reporters Thursday night they misstepped when they wrote proposed constitutional Amendment D’s vague ballot language, which was voided by the courts for being “misleading” to voters.

The courts also voided both Amendment D (which would have made clear in the Utah Constitution that the Legislature has the power to repeal or replace any type of ballot initiative), and Amendment A (which would have removed the state’s constitutional earmark on income tax revenue for education) because state officials failed to meet publication requirements. 

“I made some mistakes, and I’ll own that,” Schultz said when reporters asked him about lessons learned from amendments A and D. “We’re going to work together to find better ways.” 

Amendment D ballot language was misleading to voters, Utah Supreme Court affirms

The Utah Constitution explicitly states the Legislature “shall cause” the text of proposed constitutional amendments to be “published in at least one newspaper in every county of the state, where a newspaper is published, for two months immediately preceding the next general election.” 

But that didn’t happen for any of the proposed constitutional amendments that appeared on the Nov. 5 ballot. Amendments A and D were the most controversial, so critics challenged them in court. A district court judge voided Amendment D for two reasons: because it didn’t follow publication requirements, and because its ballot language was not only too vague, but also inaccurate and misleading. The Utah Supreme Court upheld that decision.  

Had Amendment D stayed valid and had voters approved it, it would have effectively sidestepped the Utah Supreme Court’s recent interpretation of the Utah Constitution that limited the Legislature’s powers to repeal and replace government-reform ballot initiatives, instead rewriting the constitution to cement lawmakers’ power to override any voter-approved ballot initiative.

However, the Nov. 5 ballot language posing the question to voters — written by Utah’s top Republican legislative leaders, Schultz and Adams — did not explain that in plain language, prompting critics to sue as they claimed Amendment D’s language was “false and misleading.” 

When pressed on whether he regrets not writing Amendment D’s ballot language more clearly, Schultz said, “I probably have a regret that we used the word ‘strengthened.’” However, he said he “truly believed (that) it was factual.”

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“It could have been a little more clear on what ‘strengthen’ meant, but then the language becomes too big, so, you know, I think taking that word out probably would have been better,” Schultz said. 

Asked whether members of the House Republican caucus were upset with how Amendment D played out, Schultz said, “there’s always heartache.”

When the conversation turned to what they’ll do differently, Schultz said, “we’ll work with the Senate,” but he indicated lawmakers may explore revisiting a new law that assigned the House speaker and the Senate president the duty of writing the ballot language for proposed constitutional amendments rather than nonpartisan legislative attorneys. 

He said lawmakers may also try to address “the process that makes sure that notification happens” as well as the requirement that proposed constitutional amendments be printed in newspapers. 

Adams, in a separate media availability Thursday night, said “we all can do better” when reporters asked whether he had similar regrets — though he indicated lawmakers will likely try again to tackle the issue. Both he and the speaker have characterized the Utah Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the Legislature’s control over “government reform” as one that “made a new law about the initiative power, creating chaos and striking at the very heart of our Republic.” 

“I think both Speaker Schultz and I, we would have redone the language a little bit,” Adams said. “But we also are pretty passionate about the republic. So sometimes you step a little fast. Those mistakes happen.”

However, Adams said the controversy over Amendment D didn’t influence Senate majority leadership elections, with Republicans electing three new members of legislative leaders in that body. 

Asked whether he expects lawmakers to try again during the 2025 legislative session to accomplish what they’d hope to do with Amendment D, Adams said, “I’ll never give up the passion I have for being a republic.” 

Pressed on whether that means lawmakers will try to propose another constitutional amendment with different wording to Utah voters, Adams wouldn’t elaborate. 

“We’re working on things like that,” he said. “We’ve got to keep a little bit of anxiety. We’ll have you stay tuned. But you’ll see something, I guarantee you. We’re not going to give up on that one.”