Utah has a new state flag thanks to the Legislature’s passing of Senate Bill 31 last year, and the banner is slated to officially replace the current state flag March 9. However, a political action committee is crying foul on the process which led to its adoption.

Moreover, the group says the state has stymied signature-gathering efforts for an initiative to repeal S.B. 31 and keep the current flag.

After a referendum push fell short ahead of the bill’s passing, Are You Listening Yet PAC took up the Restore Utah’s Flag initiative, which would subject changes to the state flag to voter approval. Volunteers have been gathering signatures with the aim of getting it onto November’s ballot.

“Everybody says, ‘You got to vote’ — you didn’t,” said Tracie Halvorsen, one of the initiative’s sponsors. “The whole process was wrong; they did not listen.”

According to a demand letter issued to the lieutenant governor’s office on AYLY’s behalf Friday, entire packets of signatures have been inappropriately rejected. It was further asserted that the provisions providing the basis for these rejections “unconstitutionally abridge freedom of speech and the right to petition the government.”

State election laws dictate that signatures must be submitted within 30 days after being collected. AYLY’s letter claims that entire packets of 50 signatures apiece have been invalidated due to a small number of signatures failing to meet that deadline and/or other criteria.

Halvorsen recounted the experience of one volunteer who had collected a pair of signatures before health problems precluded them getting the packet back on time.

“When we finally got (the packet) back, those signatures had expired. So, what the volunteer did — because it’s grassroots and they know it costs us $6 per packet — they just crossed them out and collected the remaining 48 signatures. They denied that entire packet,” she said.

Further complicating the issue, according to the letter, is a provision in the state code that makes knowingly signing the same initiative twice a misdemeanor offense. AYLY believes this acts a barrier toward correcting rejected signatures.

AYLY is asking Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and the state not to enforce the “unconstitutional” and “unduly burdensome” provisions at the heart of the matter. The PAC also is seeking an extension on the Feb. 15 final deadline for submitting completed packets.

Carlos Artiles Fortun, communications specialist for the lieutenant governor’s office, told the Standard-Examiner that they had not received the letter and, as such, are unable to comment.

Halvorsen and other supporters of the Restore Utah’s Flag initiative have expressed concern about the state’s history being erased by changing the flag. Others have been more receptive and even enthusiastic about the change.

A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted in October 2023 found that 41% of respondents supported the new flag, while 37% said they did not support it. Twenty-two percent answered “don’t know.”

Meanwhile, the new banner — which represents a move away from the seal-on-a-solid-backdrop style common to many U.S. states — has received positive feedback from enthusiasts of vexillology and modern graphic design concepts.

Following S.B. 31’s passing, Gov. Spencer Cox issued an executive order calling for Utah’s historic state flag to be flown on top of the Utah State Capitol building each day of the year and at other state buildings on legally recognized holidays.

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