Count My Vote initiative leaders today congratulated the three candidates who have qualified for the Republican Party primary election ballot in the replacement of resigning Congressman Jason Chaffetz in Utah’s 3rd Congressional District.
In offering congratulations, Executive Chairman of Count My Vote Rich McKeown said, “First congratulations to those who will be on the primary ballot. It should be pointed out that without Utah’s new election process, allowing candidates to qualify for the primary election ballot by gathering signatures, a few hundred voters would have made a decision belonging to tens of thousands. Given the demographic and political make up of Utah’s 3rd Congressional District, there is a very high probability that the republican candidate will replace Congressman Chaffetz. Likewise, that person will likely serve for a decade or more. It is simply wrong for that kind of decision to be made by a handful of voters who are not representative of the Utah voters.”
McKeown continued, “The Utah Republican Party adopted a special rule designed to assure only one candidate emerged from their nominating process. Were it not for the Count My Vote initiative and SB54, which allowed candidates to qualify by gathering signatures, all but 750 voters would have been prevented from participating in the selection of the Republican nominee. The good news is that 3rd District Republicans have an opportunity to choose among three qualified candidates.”
