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Auditors, county clerks and elections officials brief committee on petition signature verification, audits and fraud investigation
Summary
Legislative auditors, the state auditor, the lieutenant governor and county clerks reviewed how signature gathering and verification work in Utah, described audit findings and a statewide manual re‑verification that examined roughly 302,000 petition signatures and identified patterns of circulator‑linked fraud and data‑entry problems.
A multi‑agency briefing on June 18 reviewed how Utah verifies signatures for initiatives, referendums and candidate nominating petitions and described recent audits and a criminal‑fraud investigation that examined hundreds of thousands of signatures.
What happened: The Office of Legislative Auditor General (OLAG) sampled signatures from three major candidate petitions and reported non‑zero error rates in verification; OLAG audited 1,000 signatures per candidate to measure false accepts and false rejects. Separately, the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) and county clerks performed a near‑complete manual re‑verification to support a criminal investigation; OSA reviewed about 301,893 of 304,380 submitted signatures (about 99.18%).
Why it matters: Signature gathering and verification procedures determine whether petitions and candidate nominations meet legal thresholds for ballot access or legislative referral. The committee heard that process design, circulator behavior and data quality all affect verification results and public confidence.
Key legal and procedural points: Kirsty Jarvis and Michael Cipriano of the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel reminded members that Utah law allows both electronic and manual signature gathering for initiatives, referendums and candidate petitions and sets numeric thresholds (for example: a statewide initiative submitted to the legislature requires signatures equal to 4% of active voters from at least 26 senate districts; a statewide petition for the ballot requires 8%). Michael Cipriano summarized 2025 legislation: S.B. 164 (passed) requires audits of signature verification, sets verification thresholds (110% verification requirement), allows poll‑watcher‑style observation of verification and improves transparency about verification status; several other bills about public posting of candidate petition names did not pass this year.
Audits and findings: OLAG sampled 1,000 signatures from each of three petition sets and reported candidate‑level error rate estimates (examples discussed during the briefing included an incorrectly validated error rate of 2.4% for one candidate and a higher incorrectly invalidated rate for another candidate). OLAG recommended more controls and transparency; several recommendations (post‑verification audits, chain‑of‑custody, public status tracking) were addressed in S.B. 164.
State Auditor and fraud investigation: The state auditor’s office conducted a full manual reverification tied to a fraud probe, reviewing roughly 301,893 signatures and flagging patterns consistent with circulator‑linked irregularities. Alex Nelson of the State Auditor’s data team described building a secure, auditable review interface and hiring contract reviewers to complete the review quickly. The auditor’s office reported categories of non‑matching signatures (for example, clear no‑matches, packets showing multiple similar lines consistent with in‑house signing, and other data‑entry mismatches) and advised improvements: better signature quality from DMV capture, two‑person data entry, stronger circulator tracking and mandatory circulator training prior to circulation.
Operational and statutory issues raised: Clerks and elections staff confirmed practical controls: circulators must be at least 18 (state law no longer requires them to be Utah residents after prior court guidance); county clerks post signer names for initiatives/referendums and the lieutenant governor posts status updates; S.B. 164 requires 110% verification and audit steps. Officials suggested standardizing circulator affidavit language across petition types, requiring pre‑circulation training and improving chain‑of‑custody practices for packets.
Committee action: Committee members voted to open a committee bill file to pursue additional signature‑verification improvements (motion introduced by Representative Cutler). They also agreed to open committee files on two related House bills (H.B. 457 and H.B. 458) to be considered in the interim.
Next steps: Agency staff, county clerks and auditors offered to work with legislators on drafting technical fixes and training/verification changes before the next session. The group noted enforcement and resource questions remain for future consideration.
