If Utah values meritocracy, we must abide by Proposition 4

The Capitol in Salt Lake City is pictured on Thursday, July 10, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)

Do Utahns value meritocracy? If congressional district maps are truly fair, then candidates will win on their policy ideas and effort, not only on voter turnout. If we want fair representation, voters must choose the candidates, not maps. I, along with other Utah voters, prefer to elect candidates on their own merits instead of relying on a map skewed in one party’s favor. What Utah voters want is a good-faith effort on the part of their legislators to try. And it’s become apparent that in these meetings that there seems to be very little effort happening.

I attended the first committee hearing on redistricting on Sept. 22, 2025, after Proposition 4 was revived. The first line of the meeting by Sen. Scott Sandall set the tone: “We want to make sure that you understand that we are doing this in compliance with the court orders, and under protest.” This stuck in my mind throughout the rest of the day. Why admit publicly that you don’t care about the will of Utah voters? Utah voters made clear back in 2018 their thoughts regarding redistricting and congressional maps when Proposition 4 was passed. Why protest what the people voted into law — that maps must be drawn without partisan bias? I was and still am highly offended by Sen. Sandall’s comments.

In the second committee hearing on Sept. 24, I was appalled by how quickly questions and answers devolved into personal and partisan attacks. When Rep. Doug Owens called the current congressional map gerrymandered, Sen. Sandall immediately retorted with a point of order and rebutted, “That’s just your opinion.” Yes, it’s my opinion too. But the fact is rulings from both 3rd District Judge Dianna Gibson and the Utah Supreme Court found that the process that led to the 2021 maps was unconstitutional, and now the Legislature has the opportunity to submit a new map that aligns with the spirit of Proposition 4. The final selection will be made by Gibson.

Utahns now have options for fairer voting districts. There is no need to limit ourselves to only one method to bring this about, as Sen. Brady Brammer’s bill and his proposed partisan bias test suggest. We can focus on the ideal hypothetical maps and data models all we want, but life does not happen on a spreadsheet. It happens outside, where, instead of voting with people I worked and shopped with before fair redistricting, I voted with a different community three hundred miles away whose needs differ from mine.

I feel fortunate to have lived in many different parts of Utah, including Davis County, Iron County, Utah County, and now working in Salt Lake County. With these experiences, my perspective is unique in the discussion about redistricting voter boundaries. I have learned that each county varies in its diversity of needs and experiences. With this in mind, how could we say, for example, that someone living in Provo could adequately represent Cedar City?

Our lawmakers should listen to their constituents. The gerrymandered map currently in place has been declared illegal. Sen. Brammer’s bill is yet another way to manipulate the map to ensure the majority party retains power.

While discussing different methods of evaluating partisan symmetry, elections analyst Sean Trende explained that one way to evaluate maps is simply the “eye test”: someone can make an intuitive, non-data-based assumption on a map just by looking at it. My “eye test” of the Legislature’s actions and attitude tells me that they are not making a good faith effort to abide by the will of the people. It took the people six years to achieve this ruling that requires the Legislature to act. In 2021, the Legislature had the chance to comply with Proposition 4 and passed a compromise bill that was tossed out by the courts in 2025. Only now must the Legislature be compelled to do what voters asked for in 2018. Let us not revert to an unfair map or erase all of the work done towards fair redistricting. It is time to do right by Utah and pass a map that represents all of our voices.