Utah flag question petitioners lack signatures, but say they’re coming
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- Members of the contingent hoping to put the bill creating a new state flag to a vote of the public gathered signatures on petitions as part of their effort on Saturday, March 25, 2023, outside Rocky Mountain Junior High School in West Haven. This photo shows a fire truck decked out with Utah’s current flag, to be replaced with the new one, and a U.S. flag in the parking lot of the school.
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- Utah’s proposed new flag, shown in a supplied rendering. The Utah House and Senate approved the final version of the bill creating the new flag on Thursday, March 2, 2023, and it was later signed by Gov. Spencer Cox.
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- Members of the contingent hoping to put the bill creating a new state flag to a vote of the public gather signatures on petitions as part of their effort on Saturday, March 25, 2023, outside Rocky Mountain Junior High School in West Haven.
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- Members of the contingent hoping to put the bill creating a new state flag to a vote of the public gathered signatures on petitions as part of their effort on Saturday, March 25, 2023, outside Rocky Mountain Junior High School in West Haven. This photo shows Nate Affleck of Syracuse, who’s aiding in the effort.
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- Members of the contingent hoping to put the bill creating a new state flag to a vote of the public gathered signatures on petitions as part of their effort on Saturday, March 25, 2023, outside Rocky Mountain Junior High School in West Haven. From left, signature gatherers Misty Schenk, Jim Owens and Amy Lloyd work the table at the school.
WEST HAVEN — Nate Affleck has strong feelings about the process that led to approval of Utah’s new state flag.
“When you don’t let the people vote on the flag, it’s cancel culture,” said the Syracuse man. He was at the Weber County Republican Party convention last Saturday in West Haven, helping collect signatures among convention-goers on petitions meant to force the flag question to the ballot.
Likewise, Jim Owens, who was also helping collect signatures, has strong feelings about Utah’s old dark-blue flag, which remains the official one until March 9, 2024, when legislation establishing the new one takes effect. “It’s just so meaningful to me,” Owens said.
Both Affleck and Owens, who’s from Riverdale, pushed hard against the legislation signed into law last week by Gov. Spencer Cox that creates a new state flag — a red, white and blue banner featuring a beehive in the middle and the silhouette of the mountains of the Wasatch Front. They’re still at it, hoping to collect enough signatures on petitions to put the future of the legislation, Senate Bill 31, to voters as a question on the November ballot.
But while their passion may be strong, they have a lot of work to do, at least judging by petition numbers currently available. Just 726 signatures on their petitions had been deemed eligible as of Monday, according to online data posted by the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office. With 134,298 eligible signatures needed by April 12 for their effort to succeed, ballot proponents are short by 133,572 with the clock ticking.
In Utah County, just five petition packets with space for 48 signatures each had been turned in as of Monday morning, according to the clerk’s office there, while none had yet been submitted to Davis County officials. “We’re waiting and watching,” said Brian McKenzie, the Davis County clerk.
Weber County Elections Director Lauren Shafer reported that four petition packets had been submitted to her office while Tom Reese, elections director in the Salt Lake County Clerk’s Office, reported that three packets had been turned in there. County clerk’s office officials process petitions, passing along the numbers they crunch to the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office.
Chad Saunders, though, who’s also involved in the petition drive, says the 726 valid signatures represent only a fraction of the support out there. Many more packets are full of signatures but yet to be turned in, he promised.
“I think you’ll see the numbers increase this week,” he said. Some 3,000 packets have been printed, enough for 144,000 signatures.
Saunders has two complete packets that he hasn’t yet turned in, he said, and signature gatherers attended “event after event after event” across the state over the weekend. There were the efforts outside Rocky Mountain Junior High School in West Haven, where the Weber County GOP convention was held, as well as drives at a gun show in Davis County, at a home and garden show in the Uintah Basin area and more.
Affleck — who pushed against S.B. 31 during the legislative session — said he collected hundreds of signatures outside a grocery store. “People can’t sign fast enough,” he maintains.
The flag debate has been heated at times. Proponents of the new flag view it as a means to create a distinctive look for Utah and to better market the state. Numerous U.S. states have flags similar to Utah’s — dark blue with the state seal in the middle.
Many prefer the dark blue banner, though, which was adopted on March 9, 1911, and bristle that the broader public hasn’t had more of a direct say in the matter. “We should all get to vote on it. That’s where I have a problem,” said Affleck.
Perhaps in recognition of the strong sentiments the issue has generated among some, the dark blue flag would become Utah’s “historic flag,” per S.B. 31. What’s more, in signing the bill into law, Cox last week announced he had issued an executive order “requiring that the current state flag be flown at the Capitol at all times and at all state buildings on certain holidays and special occasions.”
He also said he’d pursue legislation in the future requiring that the dark blue state flag fly above the new one when they are flown together. “This will ensure that the historic flag will remain a symbol of our history and strength,” Cox said.
Saunders welcomes such overtures. Owens, though, says signature gatherers will keep up their efforts.
“It’s going to be a fight one way or the other. But we are fighting and we will win,” he said. “We’re going to keep going to the bitter end.”
If Owens and the others involved gather the required number of signatures, Utah voters would weigh in on a ballot question in November asking whether S.B. 31 should stand or be repealed.