Changing of the Guard

Last night, according to KSL, caucuses all across the state experienced record setting attendance. This was also true for the Precinct PA04 precinct. Our caucus, like many of the caucuses being hosted at Payson High School last night was almost standing room only. At 7:32 pm, Doris Adams, our newly former Precinct Secretary, was able to confirm that we had credentialed 138 voters to participate in the caucus. Ultimately we had 151 credentialed voters in attendance when all was said and done. There was an excitement in the as the addition of a Presidential Preference Primary had been moved up by the party from it's regular date in June to March this year.

The biggest result that came from moving up our Presidential Primary to earlier in the Presidential election cycle was that Utah gained the focus of all five Presidential candidates. This year Utah witnessed major campaign events all over the state late last week as the candidates were forced to spend time here competing for our votes.

This increased attention resulted in increased attendance and put increased pressure on caucus organizers. PA04 was no exception. I personally had not been sleeping well at night in the days running up to caucus night worried about anything and everything that could or would go wrong. Thankfully, due to my over preparation, our fantastic volunteers, and a very patient and understanding caucus attendees, everything went as smoothly as could be expected.

The rundown of the results from last night are as follows according to the order of the ballots:

Presidential Preference Primary
Ted Cruz-Winner with 116 votes in PA04. Ted was the big winner in the state of Utah overall.
John Kasich-23 votes
Donald Trump-11 votes
Mitt Romney-1 vote (Wishful thinking, but who can blame them?)

Precinct Chair, LD 67 County Delegate, Precinct State Delegate #1
Raphael Millet-Winner with 107 votes

Precinct Vice Chair, County Delegate #1 
Ed Younica by acclimation

Precinct Secretary, County Delegate #2
Juliana Millet by acclimation

Precinct Treasurer, County Delegate #3
Allaire Younica by acclimation

State Delegate #2
Daniel Bradley-67 votes on the first ballot round.

State Delegate #3
Juliana Millet-82 votes on the fourth ballot round.

County Delegate #4
Brian Hughes-Won on the first ballot round, but I don't have the total.

County Delegate #5
Walt Johnson-Won on the second ballot round, but I don't have the total.

The body of the caucus moved to automatically elect both the Precinct Secretary and the Precinct Treasurer as County Delegates. All of the voting was done by around 9:00 pm, with the final vote tallies being announced by 9:15ish.

One unique result from last night's voting was that we were able to elect an additional county delegate. Raphael Millet, who was elected as Precinct Chair, is currently serving as the Vice Chair for our Legislative District 67. In that position, he is automatically elected as a County Delegate. With his election, that freed up the County Delegate position that is normally assigned to the Precinct Chair, thereby giving PA04 an opportunity to send one more individual to represent us at the County Convention in April.

I would like to wrap up this post by thanking all of the great volunteers that worked hard to help our Caucus run so smoothly.

I would like to thank Doris Adams for leading the charge and taking over the registration and credentialing desk. She was amazing and fulfilled her duties as Precinct Secretary with distinction. I would like to thank her helpers Dick Allen, Diane Allen and Lois Knuteson. They made the organized chaos of the registration desk run as smoothly as possible.

I would like to thank the young men of Troop 915 and the Mountain View 2nd Ward for being on hand in a neutral capacity to provide a wonderful flag ceremony and being my ballot collection team. Specifically Gammon Ashton, Jex Ashton, Tyler Caldwell, Hunter Harvey, Ben Meldrum, Garrett Ruch, and Bradley Spencer. I have a special shout out to Chris Ruch and Hyrum Meldrum for being my speech timers to ensure that our speakers stuck to their two minute time limit. I would also like to thank their leaders Justin Ruch, Paul Ashton, and Spencer Peterson for getting them there.

I would like to also thank again Doris Adams and Teona Humphries for helping to count and process all of the ballots.

Finally I would like to thank my wife Tanya Harvey for not just being there and being a support to me, but for taking charge of the vote counting. That was big job she was handed on the spot and she was fantastic.

I am grateful that I had an opportunity to serve my community in my capacity as Precinct Chair for the past two years. I know that those elected last night are all good people who are dedicated in their desire to select candidates that will represent our views and the values of the Republican Party.

Burt Harvey
Former Precinct Chair
Payson PA04 Precinct

Getting Ready for the March 22 Caucus Night!

The March 22 Caucus Night meeting is fast approaching. Here is an information dump for everyone who is planning on attending that night.

The Presidential Primary

If you want to vote in the upcoming Republican Presidential Primary it is highly recommended that you pre-register! Pre-registration will allow you to choose to vote online or at your local caucus night. If you can, VOTE ONLINE!!! This will help us have a much quicker process at our caucus meeting if we don't have to deal with the presidential primary.

If you are interested in only the presidential primary and not the caucus you should definitely vote online since the State Party, who sets the agenda for the local caucus meeting, will require to vote in this race as the last item on the agenda. That means you will have to wait until the end of the night to vote. Use this link to pre-register and vote online.

TUE, MAR 22 7:00PM 2016 Utah Republican Party Caucus Pre-Registration (Utah County) Presidential Primary Only Government & Politics Utah County

Want to make sure you are registered to vote? Go to vote.utah.gov to find your voter registration.

Running to be a Delegate/Precinct Officer

The main purpose of the Caucus meetings is the election of State and County Delegate and the election of the Precinct Officers. If you would like to run for one of these positions there are two ways for you to declare your candidacy.

1. You can pre-register as a candidate online. Go to the Pre-Register as a Candidate page on this blog, fill out the form, and hit submit. As long you are already a registered Republican, your name will automatically be added to the ballot for the positions that you are running for.

2. If you do not pre-register you can come to the caucus night and nominate yourself or have someone else nominate you from the floor.

If you are not currently registered as a Republican you will not be added to the absentee or same-day voter ballot until you are. You can show up to caucus night, register as a Republican on the spot and then run for office if you choose.

Since the rules allow for absentee balloting at the caucus night you don't technically need to be present to be elected as a delegate or a precinct officer. However, candidates who are present will be given a chance to speak and answer a couple of questions. Failure by pre-registered candidates to show up to their caucus will probably keep them from getting elected. Just sayin....

Military/Missionary/Same Day Absentee Voting

Starting this year registered Republicans who are not able to attend their neighborhood caucus can be given a chance to vote by absentee ballot. For more information about how this will work, click to view the following explanation from the Utah State Republican Party.

Explanation of Voting Absentee for Same Day, Out of State Military Personnel, and Religious Service Voters

Some Final Reminders and Reading Material

For anyone that want to serve in any position in the party and serve their community by taking on the responsibility to vet the candidates for local and national office, the following documents are very important. One of the responsibility of a delegate is to select a candidate that will best represent both their constituents, but also the values, ideals, and platforms of the Republican Party. Precinct Officers are required by the by the Bylaws of the party to publicly only support party selected candidates.

If you are considering running to be a delegate or a precinct officer, then take to familiarize yourself with the governing documents of our party. You will be representing not just yourself, but all of your Republican friends and neighbors this election season. Now is a good time to understand what your party stands for.

Utah County Republican Party
Party Platform	Constitution & Bylaws	Party Standing Rules

Utah State Republican Party
Party Platform	Party Bylaws	Party Constitution

Passing Along Some Information

This was sent to me in an email from our new Legislative District Chair Shauna Phelps. It is a summary of what has been going on with the Caucus System sent to her by Tamara Atkin, who is our former Legislative District Chair. I think it is a pretty summary of the relevant information. You may or not agree with Tamara's conclusions, but I think she presents the situation clearly enough.

Dear Payson Precinct 06 and WMC 01,

A few changes have been made which have led to many rumors and much confusion. I have done my best to get the answers so our precinct members can be ready to participate in this exciting election year.

I have included a few others who I think may want this information. Everyone feel free to pass this on or take anything from it for your own informative emails.

Presidential Straw Poll at Caucus

This is the first year that we will be including a presidential straw poll at the Caucus on Tuesday March 22. There are a couple of reasons for this change. First, because Utah usually doesn't vote until the end of June, we tend to be ignored by the Presidential Candidates who focus on states who vote first, such as Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. Second, by the time June comes around the field of candidates has narrowed so much that we may not be able to lend our support to candidates who we like at the beginning of the year. Our early picks may not even be running by the time we get to vote for them. This new method will allow us to throw the support of Utah behind the candidate we truly favor a full three months earlier.

I have been told by members of the State Central Committee that this will be everyone's only opportunity to vote for the Republican Presidential Nominee in the state of Utah in 2016. Recently an official email went out by the communications director Cindie Quintana confirming that this straw poll will be held instead of a Primary. If this is true, you do not want to miss this opportunity to vote for our Republican Nominee. Last week I called the Utah County Clerk office for verification before sending out this email and they said that the primary election has not changed. If there are multiple candidates for President at the time of the Primary Election on June 28th we will be able to choose from among those who are left at that time. I apologize that I cannot get to the bottom of this discrepancy. It is not for a lack of trying. I made several attempts to speak to a higher official at party headquarters and the state office of elections.

In order to accommodate the large number of voters who would like to attend caucus in order to take part in the Presidential Straw Poll, the Party has purchased an app which will allow people to vote from home. The details will not be set until after the State Central Committee meeting on Feb 6, but I know that app has been purchased and I will give more details when they become available.

Changes to our Republican Primary 

The Republican Party has had some drastic changes forced upon them just in time for this year's election. A new law was passed called SB54. These changes were accomplished by the efforts of wealthy group beneficiaries calling themselves "Count My Vote" or CMV and a Utah State Senator named Curtis Bramble. You may have heard this new law referred to as "a compromise" in the news. The idea that it was a compromise between the Republican Party and CMV is false and the whole mess is causing much confusion.

You can read the official details to the new law posted by the State Election office here:
http://elections.utah.gov/Media/Default/Documents/Elections%20Resources/SB54%20FAQs%206.0.pdf

Lawsuits and Reactions

Because a Republican Senator, who is in no way qualified or authorized to speak in behalf of the Republican Party, created this back door deal and completely altered the way Republicans are allowed to select the person that will go forward as their own nominee, the Party has since been forced to turn to the courts to fight this with several lawsuits. The Party is arguing that a private organization is protected by the the right to freedom of association and can conduct business within their organization the way they choose. Imagine for example if a Republican Senator were able to pass a new law which ordered the LDS church to follow a new method in selecting their leaders.

The Republican Party won the first lawsuit and the second lawsuit should be decided in the next two weeks, so that they can know how to proceed with the election which begins with the Caucus night in March.

The reason CMV and others such as Curt Bramble felt it necessary to alter Caucus/Convetnion/Primary system which was choicen by our citizens is simply because the Republican Party is so popular in Utah. Everyone seems to forget that the Republican Party has no power to select our future leaders. Their primary elections do nothing but select the person who goes forward to the general election with their name and support. In some areas the Republican Party is popular enough that the general election becomes irrelevant. This is true in statewide elections. The party is being punished for their popularity by those in power wanting to strip them of their ability to be in charge of selecting the person they feel is the best candidate to whom to lend their support.

The Democrat Party of Utah has decided to try to stop the Republican party from pleading their case. You can read about it in the article from the SL Tribune:
http://www.sltrib.com/news/3463790-155/dems-want-gop-stripped-of-party


The Truth About Senator Curtis Bramble's SB54

In 2013 a few, very wealthy, Utahn's (mostly friends of Bob Bennett, who lost his Senate seat in 2010, and several high priced campaign managers) put together a citizen's initiative called "Count My Vote." A citizen's initiative is one way to change a law by getting the support of the public. Their goal was to do away with Utah's Caucus/Convention/Primary system and exchange it for a straight primary only.

They were so certain that they could buy the necessary support with their money that they invested heavily in this scheme. The problem is that a citizen's initiative requires the signatures from 26 out of 29 counties in Utah in order to pass. People in rural areas are harder to gather signatures from because their houses are spread out making door knocking difficult and they don't tend to gather at movies, malls, etc as often as people in the city. Also, if they understand the details to the initiative they know what CMV was wanting would only ensure that rural areas would lose their voice and political power because candidates would no longer need to meet with them or worry about getting their support.

CMV hired people from outside the state to collect signatures by harassing citizens. There is recorded evidence of this and of them telling lies in order to try and get the needed signatures. I've included a couple on examples below.

CMV claimed they got all the signatures they needed, but I personally called all the clerks in the State and found out that they had collected most of their signatures in only three counties, Salt Lake, Utah County, and Cache County. Most of the other counties had no or very few signatures.

In order to save their efforts, in which they had invested lots of money, they worked out a deal with Senator Curt Bramble to create a new state law by way of legislation instead of using their petitions. Curt Bramble called it a compromise between the Republican Party and the CMV group, but that is not true, because the Republican Party was never consulted and they have been trying to undo this deal by lawsuits ever since. Many people are confused wondering why the Republican Party would try to use the law to back out of their deal, but the fact is it was never their deal.

The legislators claim they voted for this law, because they were convinced that CMV had the needed signatures and this was a good way to save the Caucus. This law in no way saves the Caucus. It undermines the Caucus and gives CMV everything they wanted and more. Now the legislators say they can't repeal it or they will be turning their backs on the people who wanted a straight primary. That was done when they passed this law. If the people truly wanted a straight primary, the legislature should have allowed them to have it. I know they did not. Conveniently for CMV they were never asked to show proof of their signature gathering efforts and now no one will ever know the truth. I know that people who hold all the cards have no cause to ask for a compromise. There is no way they had the signatures or they would never have gotten involved in this mess.

Here is the link to a signature collector lying by saying that the petition is for protecting kids lunches instead of for changing our elections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvsYtqqNMCQ

Here is a 7 min video about the CMV effort: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3BUaMd2jPQ

Changes to our system caused by the original version of SB54

After the passing of SB54, we can still hold our caucus and convention in March and April, which always results in one or two names being put on the primary ballot that we vote on in June. But now, anyone who can collect a percentage of signatures from Registered Republican or Unaffiliated voters in their area can also be added to the ballot.

How many petition signatures do candidates need to collect

The number of signatures candidates need to collect depends on the political office. The requirements are as follows:

• Statewide office (e.g., U.S. Senate, Governor, Attorney General): 28,000 signatures
• U.S. House: 7,000 signatures
• Utah State Senate: 2,000 signatures
• Utah State House: 1,000 signatures
• County office: 3% of the voters permitted to vote in the political party’s primary who live in the district or area

Many candidates have already begun to hire door to door collectors and the going rate is $5 per signature. This means anyone can pay $5,000 to $140,000 and be guaranteed to be put on our primary ballot without any kind of vetting by the Republican Party or it's elected delegates from our neighborhood caucus election.

There are several reasons why I think this is a terrible change for the people of Utah

• This can result in an unlimited number of names on our Primary ballot. Imagine having a dozen or more names to choose from and having to find out information about them without the help of the convention system.
• It is not required for these individuals to be vetted by the Republican Party or our delegates in any way.
• Candidates no longer have to receive 50% or more of the vote in order to win an election. With enough names, it is possible to win with only 10% support or even less.
• It is no longer possible for candidates to afford to run an inexpensive campaign, because they would have to pay to get their message out to everyone, by way of more mailers, commercials, robocalls and other campaign advertisements that most people find distasteful and annoying. Our caucus convention system allowed people to meet all the delegates in person. It is possible to run for office with only the fee to run, which is under $1,000. Now it will almost be guaranteed that every race will have to pay for a primary campaign, which I can tell you from personal experience is very expensive for any regular person who would like to serve in their community. Only wealthy people and professional politicians with advanced fundraising skills will be able to run for office in Utah as long as this law stands.
• It is impossible for many of these candidates to collect these signatures themselves. Not only are they too busy with the rest of their campaigning, but some of the required signature amounts are just too high for any one individual. So the signature gathering process is not a way to weed out unsavory candidates from our primary ballot. It is nothing more than a matter of money and does not show support from the people.
• In the past, we could go to the primary election with confidence that the two individuals on the ballot were both well liked by elected delegates. If we couldn't meet with them in person, we can at least know that someone has.

Important Note about petitions

If you sign their a petition for a candidate, you cannot sign a petition for another candidate in that race. In a sense that signature is a vote for that person over any and all others. You also cannot change your mind once signing. I would advise everyone to not sign a single petition. Most likely you will not even know who all the other options might be at the time you are asked to sign.

The First Lawsuit

In the first lawsuit the Judge agreed with some of the Republican Party's complaints and changed the part of the law that stated that Republicans must allow Unaffiliated voters to either vote in their primary election or to sign the petitions for Republican Candidates. Curt Bramble himself told me that this part of the law was very important to him. He wouldn't say why, but I assume it is in order to make signature gathering easier. To me it only meant that the Republican nominees weren't selected by Republicans. Luckily the judge agreed.

The Second Law Suit

About a week ago the second lawsuit was filed in order to give the Republican Primary back the liberty to decide who can be included on their primary ballot.  If the party wins this lawsuit they can decide for themselves whether or not to have signature gathering be a part of the process. Once the judge gives this power back to the party, this decision will be made by the delegates and I can tell you now if this passes the signatures will not be accepted from that moment on. They will no longer allow people to buy their way onto our primary ballot by purchasing signatures. Only those properly vetted by our elected delegates through the caucus/convention system will be included. The Party leaders were told they should have an answer in three weeks so they can have the answer before our caucus/convention cycle begins.

This Law makes our election system more like California's

The Governor is known for touting the fact that Utah is the best run state in the nation. He usually credits himself for that success. I credit our caucus/convention system. This state is run by many elected officials, not just one, and each of them have been very carefully elected by our system.

Some of these delegates have spent many volunteer hours over the years getting to know the character of these candidates and watching the voting records of these incumbents. We are so lucky to have a system which requires all candidates to meet face to face and prove what's in the heart and answer for their history and voting records. This system has it's flaws like anything done by humans will ( I will not mention names but I think we can all think of at least one bad guy who has gotten through the process), but it is the system that has made Utah the best-run state in the nation. It would be a shame to trade it away for the system that is used in States like California, where citizens have never had the privilege to meet their elected officials and they have to choose from among a dozen names that they barely recognize. California is not an example of the best-run State in the Nation. But CMV has suggested that we should follow the example of other states and change our election process to be more with the times. I do not agree. Why mess up a good thing.

Thanks for reading, or at least skimming, this long email :)
I hope everyone will take part in our straw poll this year and attend caucus if at all possible.Please let me know if you have any questions.

Tamara Atkin
UCWM Precinct Chair
801-376-7401

Getting Ready for 2016!

Chances are no one is going to see this post ever, however just a short note to let anyone in Precinct PA04 know that the 2016 local Republican caucuses are coming. I will be updating the calendar and adding a new Facebook group for those that are interested. More information to come!