The Wayne and Garfield County Insider  is a weekly paper, published each Thursday, with copy deadlines on the Friday noon preceding publication. 

It's difficult to get timely information about a bill reported in a weekly publication, especially given the typical fast movement of a bill, once it comes to committee. 

However, as legislative topics come to light, letters to the editor take on greater importance in creating awareness among the public. GCTA encourages interested parties to make their feelings known about these topics and how they affect Garfield County residents. 

The Insider  currently reports on several local and most county meetings. However, there is a lack of follow-up on many discussion topics, including budgetary matters and policy decision-making. This is not the fault of the paper; it's a lack of reporting resources. GCTA would like to help fill that gap with well-researched articles, as well as fact-based Letters-to-the Editor. We welcome volunteers who can assist with this. 

Sample Letter to the Editor, published in the Insider Feb 13:

Utah bill would end Mail-in voting

HB300, which passed its House Committee last week and heads to the Utah House floor for a vote, will effectively end mail-in voting in Utah.

Among other requirements, ballots would still be mailed out, but could only be returned in person, at a polling location or a municipal drop box, with two paid poll workers checking photo ID upon the drop off. 

Garfield County Taxpayers Alliance strongly objects to this attempted gutting of our voting system:

• It’s expensive. A Feb 5 article in the SL Tribune found, “Significantly more poll workers would have to be hired to administer elections and more drop boxes would have to be placed throughout the state, and county governments would largely shoulder those expenses. According to a fiscal note attached to the bill, counties would immediately have to spend about half a million dollars to execute its changes and around an additional $6 million per election.

• ”It’s unnecessary. According to reporting in that article, state auditors “concluded that there was no evidence of significant fraud in Utah’s elections and told lawmakers the errors represented a minuscule portion of the state’s 2 million-voter system.” The errors they did find--- mostly ballots returned by deceased persons--- is simple to rectify before counties mail out the ballots. That would be significantly cheaper than enacting the changes required in this bill.

• It undermines voter participation. In practical terms, small, rural communities can’t afford to staff a drop box with two people, eight hours a day, over the course of the early voting period. The likely result is fewer drop boxes across the county. Longer drives to vote or drop off a ballot. And more time spent trying to do so. Once again, eligible voters who happen to be older, infirm, non-driving, have regular working hours, or live a long ways away from a polling location are penalized.

Take action now: Call or email our Utah Representative, Logan Monson today, and tell him to vote NO!  lmonson@le.utah.gov , 801-834-5270.

And let our Utah Senator, Derrin Owens, know right now how you feel about mail-in voting:  derrinowens@le.utah.gov, 435-851-1284.

It’s your money. And it’s your vote. 

Peg Smith, Garfield County Taxpayers Alliance (gctautah.org), Boulder

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