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House committee favors bill to restore nonpartisan drafting of ballot titles
Summary
The House committee voted unanimously to recommend House Bill 563, which would return responsibility for writing ballot initiative language to nonpartisan legislative research attorneys and undo a change made last year that routed draft ballot titles to partisan leaders.
Representative Schultz opened the committee hearing on House Bill 563 on the process for ballot titles and asked the panel to support the measure. "I promised, my colleague behind me that I would keep this short and quick. So, I think we can sum it up by this a good bill, vote for him," Schultz said.
The bill would reverse a change made last year that placed responsibility for drafting ballot titles with the speaker and the president, returning the task to nonpartisan legislative research attorneys. "As we went through that process I think we found out and saw that that uh-uh this change or the change that was made last year was probably not the right way, for this to, for it to be placed on the ballot," Schultz said, describing the bill as restoring the prior procedure.
The measure drew brief public praise during public comment. Kale Weston, who said he worked at polling places, told the committee that some voters were confused by the prior language and that HB 563 helps "close the gap of trust in our in our state government." France Brauer, who identified herself as a Utah citizen, also thanked Schultz for the bill.
Representative McPherson moved that the committee "pass out favorably, HB 5 63 with a favorable recommendation from this committee." Representative Romero, the minority leader, said he supported the motion and emphasized the value of a neutral drafter: "I think it's really important that it's a neutral person drafting the language for that. So we can address our concerns through our response."
The committee took a voice vote and the motion to favorably recommend House Bill 563 passed unanimously.
Why it matters: the bill changes who prepares the ballot language voters read, shifting drafting authority away from legislative leaders and back to nonpartisan staff. Committee members and public commenters framed the change as improving clarity and trust in the ballot process.
Votes at a glance: The committee voted by voice to favorably recommend House Bill 563; members present voted "aye" and the vote was recorded as unanimous. Exact numerical tallies were not specified in the transcript.
The committee moved on to other bills after the unanimous recommendation.
