Utah panel reviews rollout of electronic signature-gathering system as law now allows mixed methods

The Government Operations Interim Committee on Aug. 20 received a demonstration of Utah's electronic signature-gathering platform and an update on how the system will be used now that state law allows sponsors to gather signatures manually, electronically, or both. Representative Jordan Tescher, who sponsored the 2022 bill authorizing electronic collection, told the panel the reform was intended to reduce printing costs and improve the accuracy and speed of verification.

Why it matters: The change could materially shorten the time petition sponsors wait to learn whether signatures are valid, a factor that affects whether a candidate reaches a convention or an initiative hits a ballot.

At the meeting, Zach Fish, elections systems specialist for the Lieutenant Governor's Office, and Shelley Jackson, deputy director of elections, walked the committee through the circulator-facing workflow. Fish demonstrated a tablet-based flow in which a circulator presents a state-approved device to a voter, the voter acknowledges statutory disclosures, then provides either a driver's license/state ID number or alternate identifying information (date of birth or address) if the ID is not available. Fish said the app checks the voter registration database and shows a red validation message when the on-screen data matches the voter record; if the voter lacks an ID, the record is placed into a queue for county-clerk follow-up as required by code.

Representative Tescher said the system's main benefits are reducing the subjective manual comparison of signatures and making clear to signers what they are endorsing. Tescher said the statute envisioned scanning IDs and that the office should add a scanning capability to reduce typing errors.

Committee members raised operational questions. Representative Keltner and Representative Cutler asked whether the application can scan driver's licenses; Fish said the current build lacks scanning but that capability could be added. Senator Winterton asked how the application protects personally identifiable information; Fish and Tescher said the platform does not store data locally on devices and that submitted images or numbers are transmitted to the Lieutenant Governor's systems for verification and retention.

Fish said the platform requires a live internet connection for real-time verification; if the circulator cannot connect, best practice is to use a paper packet. Fish also noted the platform supports the code's special rules for candidate petitions (for example, preventing out-of-district or wrong-party signers from being accepted) and that circulators will still be required to certify their work after signatures are collected.

Outside comparisons: Fish and Tescher referenced New Mexico's web portal for candidate petitions (used statewide for about two years) and Denver's 2014'17 iPad app. New Mexico's portal lets registrants sign directly online and ties sign-in to the voter database; Denver previously verified electronic signatures and reported lower rejection rates compared with manual collection.

Next steps: Representative Tescher urged petition sponsors to pilot the system and proposed possibly setting a future sunset to encourage adoption of electronic collection once offline functionality and other tweaks are complete. The committee voted to open a bill file to study electronic signature gathering and verification further.

For the record: the Lieutenant Governor's office said it will publish daily reports of verified signers and that manual and electronic signatures will be aggregated and de-duplicated before public posting.