I want to update you on the success we had at our Special State Central Committee Meeting this past Saturday.
As you may know, we needed to make decisions as a Party on how we were going to comply with the new election law, SB 54, which was the compromise struck between Count My Vote and the Utah Legislature. This new law requires the Party to implement certain changes in order to have our candidates listed as Republicans on the ballot. One of the main decisions we made on this past Saturday is to become a Qualified Political Party (QPP). As a QPP, our candidates will have two paths to the primary ballot: going through the caucus convention system or gathering signatures. This decision was based, in part, on the survey results we received after sending out the survey to over 60,000 of our members.
In order to secure the two-thirds vote needed for required changes to our governing documents, I needed to forge a consensus on a way forward. Prior to the initial hearing on our legal challenge to SB 54, a consensus seemed nearly impossible based on the timeline before us. However, during the court hearing, the federal judge suggested an approach that would address some of our major concerns. In short, we needed to better define our membership. With this new information I worked with our legal counsel and Party members to forge an agreement prior to our central committee meeting on this past Saturday, which included further defining our party's membership for candidates. As a result, we were able to pass a resolution stating that we would select the Qualified Political Party path and make the necessary constitution and bylaw changes so that we can prepare for 2016.
The meeting was an overwhelming success and our members left with a unity of purpose. While the legal challenge against SB 54 continues, it will not interfere with our preparation for 2016 election cycle.
The Party would not be successful without your commitment and support. I am counting on you to help ensure that we remain successful going into the 2016 election cycle. If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact us at (801) 533-9777 or [email protected].
