Committee approves amended elections bill after debate over emergency clause, voter lists and dual-candidacy language

The House Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee approved a committee substitute for House Bill 534 on a 12-4 vote, moving the elections measure to the House floor with a favorable report.

Representative DJ Johnson, who sponsored the bill and introduced himself for the record as “Representative DJ Johnson, 13th District, Davis County,” told the committee that the substitute removes the emergency clause and sets implementation dates designed to meet deadlines for the 2026 general election. He said the changes reflect requests from the County Clerk's Association and other stakeholders and that the sub also deletes a section on cast-vote records and removes language giving certain appointment powers to legislative leaders.

"This is deja vu all over again," Representative DJ Johnson said as he summarized the sub’s changes and the reasoning behind them. He said the substitute also replaces mandatory "shall" language with "is authorized to" for memoranda of understanding with the Department of Justice so the Board of Elections has flexibility in negotiations, and deletes a subsection addressing poll worker actions when a voter is flagged as a noncitizen — changes he attributed in part to the County Clerk's Association.

Members pressed the sponsor on several provisions. Representative Hancock asked how the bill would avoid removing voters whose rights had been restored through pardons or court orders. Johnson said he expects the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) to coordinate with the governor’s office and that interagency communications, rather than further statutory prescription, should address accuracy of the rolls. He said he has not been told of a significant cost increase but called that a matter staff would raise if needed.

Several members expressed continued unease. Representative Hancock said the bill looked “like a solution looking for a problem” and said she would vote no, citing risks that pardoned voters could be removed from rolls. Representative Chester Burton and Representative Marzion also voiced concerns about cost and clerks’ workloads; Representative Gooch said he would oppose the bill while the dual-candidacy clause remained.

Supporters highlighted changes they viewed as safeguards. Representative Roberts said the sub creates "the avenue for human verification" by removing QR/bar-code reliance and clarified that lists of ineligible voters would exclude people who have had civil rights restored by the governor. "So on those grounds, I am a yes on this bill," Roberts said, citing both ballot-verification language and protections for candidates’ speech drawn from recent court decisions.

A motion to pass House Bill 534 as amended by the committee substitute was made by Representative Lewis and seconded; after several members gave short explanations of their votes, the committee voted 12 in favor and 4 against. The committee then adopted a title amendment and gave the bill a favorable report to the House floor.

The sponsor acknowledged that the County Clerk's Association reportedly still opposed the bill despite the changes and said he would keep working with clerks to resolve outstanding issues. The committee did not adopt additional fiscal text in committee; members who cited cost concerns asked staff to continue vetting budget impacts before floor consideration.

With the committee’s favorable report, House Bill 534 advances to the full House. The committee did not set a floor action date in the meeting transcript; next procedural steps will follow the House calendar.