Utah gerrymander struck down by judge in a win for voters

It has been more than 60 years since UTAH supported a democrat for the president. The last American senator Democratic of the State left his duties almost half a century ago and the last Democrat in Utah to serve in the House lost his seat in 2020.

But, quite improbable, UTAH is suddenly emerged as a rare democratic bright point in the red-vs.-blue redistribution wars.

At the end of last month, a judge threw the lines of the state bowed to the State and ordered the legislature led by the UTAH GOP to draw a new political card, judging that the legislators have incorrectly led the nose and replaced the voters who created an independent redistribution commission to end the Gerrymands.

It is a welcome decline against the growing model of the legislators who are arrogantly ignoring the voters and continuing their favorite program. You do not need to be a supporter to think that the elections should be important and when voters express their will, it should be honored.

If not, what is the point of holding the elections?

Anyway, redistribution. Have you ever dreamed of spending so much time thinking about the subject? As a rule, it is an arcanic and extremely cheesy process that occurs once by decade, after the census, and mainly attracts the attention of a small priesthood of online experts and political obsessives.

Suddenly, everyone is obsessed with the borders of Congress, for which we can thank our Voraciously self-absorbed president.

Trump launched the whole company of Gerrymandering Sorry – the voters and democracy are damned – in Browbeat Texas to redraw his Congress card in an attempt to make Republicans up to five additional seats in 2026.

The governor of California Gavin Newsom responded to Texas with a proposed democratic gerrymander and perhaps you think, well, what about his attempted power? Although your friendly columnist has deplored the efforts to put an end to the established redistribution commission of state voters, at least the case takes place on the ballot in a special election of November 4, allowing the people to decide.

In the meantime, the political race downwards continues.

The legislators of Florida, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio led by the Republicans could tear their Congress cards in favor of the Partisan Gerrymanders, and the Democrats of Illinois and New York are invited to do the same.

When everything is said and made, about 10 additional seats could be locked up by one or the other, even before a single ballot; This when the map of the competitive congress on a national scale has already reduced to a historic hollow the size of a stamp.

If you think that this type of precopy elections and the obsolescence of voters is a good thing, you could consider changing your registration in Russia or China.

Utah, at least, offers a small ray of positivity.

In 2018, voters narrowly approved proposition 4, moving away from the process of drawing the card of self-interested legislators and creating an independent commission to manage redistribution. In 2021, the Legislative Assembly managed by the Republicans chose to ignore the voters, empty the commission and pass a Congress map which allowed the GOP to easily win the four seats of the UTA Chamber.

The trick was to decide and compensate for the county of Salt Lake, originally democratic, the most populated and most densely of the state, and dispersing its voters among four districts with republican predominance.

“There will always be someone who agrees,” said Carson Jorgensen, president of the Republican Party of Utah, said legislators to give voters their major.

In July 2024, the five judges of the Supreme Court of Utah – all named Republicans – noted that the repeal and replacement of proposal 4 by the legislator were unconstitutional. The decision referred the case to the district judge of the county of Salt Lake, Dianna Gibson, who, on August 25, rejected the partisan cards drawn by the GOP legislators.

Picked predictable indignation.

“Monday’s order on Monday in UTAH is absolutely unconstitutional,” aggravated Trump on social networks. “How is a wonderful republican state like Utah, which I won at each election, ended up with so many radical judges on the left?”

In the case of Gibson, the answer is his appointment by governor Gary R. Herbert, a republican who would be considered a radical left in the same way as a sundae to the hot fudge could be described as a diet.

Others have offered the usual conviction of “judicial activism”, which is a political discourse whenever a court decision does not take place in your sense.

“It’s a terrible day … for the rule of law,” deplored the republican senator of Utah, Mike Lee, who is apparently concerned about legal properties that they serve the president of his party and the GOP, having approved Trump allies in their failed attempt to overthrow the 2020 elections.

In a decision last week, rejecting the legislators’ request to suspend its decision, Gibson wrote that “UTAH has the opportunity to be different”.

“While other states are currently redressing their Congress cards to intentionally make certain votes without meaning, UTAH could rethink its congress plan with the intention of protecting the right to vote of its citizens and ensuring that each citizen’s vote is significant.”

It’s true. Utah can not only be different from other states, as Gibson has suggested.

It can be better.