As a deadline approaches to firm up boundaries for 2026, the Utah GOP launched a push Tuesday to block a map proposed by the Legislature and repeal a 2018 redistricting law.

The map from lawmakers is the least competitive for Democrats out of four options they considered after a judge struck down boundaries they drew in 2021, saying they came about unconstitutionally.

Lawmakers’ proposed map was also endorsed by the Utah GOP just two weeks ago. But on Tuesday, Chairman Rob Axson filed a petition with Utah’s elections office for a referendum asking voters to reject the plan. Per state code, a group has 30 days to gather signatures from 8% of Utah voters — about 140,000 — including 8% of the voters in at least 15 of the state’s 29 Senate districts.

The map in question is one of three options on the table before a judge who has less than a month to make a final selection. The lieutenant governor, who is Utah’s top election official, set a deadline of Nov. 10.

The move could drag the process into legally murky territory. If a referendum gets enough signatures, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson is required to put a stay on the law set to be referred to voters.

In an interview Tuesday, Henderson said voters and candidates deserve a degree of certainty, and this adds more uncertainty to “an already tricky situation.”

Asked what her biggest fear is, Henderson replied: “That we won’t have maps when we need them, or that we’ll have to change in the middle of a process. We’re walking down some roads that have not been tread before. That is concerning from an election administration standpoint.”

Axson did not comment in response to requests from Utah News Dispatch on Tuesday.

The two other maps are being pitched by voting rights groups who sued the state over the 2021 maps: the League of Women Voters of Utah, Mormon Women for Ethical Government, the Campaign Legal Center and some Salt Lake County voters.

“It’s frustrating, it’s disappointing, and I just don’t understand,” said Elizabeth Rasmussen, executive director of Better Boundaries, the group behind the 2018 initiative creating an independent redistricting commission. “It’s honestly like one of the last things in their toolbox for them to really get rid of this law that they don’t like, and so we’re still going to be operating on all levels, through any means necessary.”

The Utah GOP is also seeking the repeal of Proposition 4, a 2018 voter-approved ballot initiative setting up an independent redistricting commission. Axson filed an application for an indirect initiative that would require roughly 70,000 signatures – or 4% of active registered voters – in at least 26 of Utah’s 29 state Senate districts, and by Nov. 15, before it can go to the Legislature for approval.

A judge reinstated Proposition 4 this year, ruling lawmakers overstepped their constitutional authority when they turned the commission into an advisory body that lawmakers could ignore. That ruling also voided the state’s congressional boundaries last drawn in 2021, deeming them the result of an unconstitutional process.

Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.