I’d like to briefly address the concept of checks and balances. This was and is a brilliant innovation by the framers of our nation to keep the government functioning and responsive. Each branch prevents the other branches from becoming too powerful and helps hold them accountable.

What worries me in this current political climate, however, is that our elected Congress and Senate see themselves not only as checks on other branches, but on the citizens themselves. I have been troubled to find that, although they pay plenty of lip service to democratic concepts, they have expressed a privileged and dismissive attitude toward those very voters from whom their power actually and ultimately derives.

These past few months, I have visited the Utah Capitol building in person for every update and event regarding the redistricting ballot initiative passed by voters in 2018. This is the first legislative issue I’ve ever been actively involved in, and the experience has surprised me in many ways.

In the fall of 2021, when the various maps were put before the Legislature, I wrote my representative in support of the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission (UIRC), which had been brought into existence through a citizen ballot initiative. I felt the commission’s work had been thorough and transparent, and I valued their input and hoped the Legislature would honor it. I made clear that I was unaffiliated with any particular party.

I was taken aback when I received a response that included this: “I have read reports in the media that the UIRC maps are designed in a way that will almost certainly increase the number of elected Democrats. … While I am sure there are some people who actually favor having more Democrats in the Utah House and/or Senate, it is the essence of partisan gerrymandering to propose a map that accomplishes that objective.”

The legislators claim that the recent court rulings have unbalanced the power division that should exist between representative democracy (elected legislature) and direct democracy (ballot initiatives). According to them, Amendment D only sought to “restore” what has existed before, and “protect” the peoples’ voices. And so the framers of the amendment specifically made it retroactive, which would both have overturned the redistricting initiative and invalidated the unanimous Supreme Court decision protecting it.

These are actions that speak to the very heart of the issue: It looks to me like the current Utah legislative supermajority wishes to shield itself from accountability and insulate itself from criticism by those it purports to represent.

The Legislature has repeatedly tried to avoid fairly and proportionally representing their own constituents — in 2021, by summarily rejecting boundary maps commissioned by the people themselves, in favor of the Legislature’s own maps; this summer, by decrying a unanimous and fair legal ruling by the state’s highest court; and most recently, by proposing a constitutional amendment with deceptive reasoning while shortcutting the required timeline for giving voters sufficient consideration.

Sen. Daniel Thatcher, a Republican representative who showed integrity and voted against adding the amendment to the ballot, was entirely correct in his assessment of how the public would view the Legislature’s antics: They will “give us the biggest black eye we’ve ever had.”

While Amendment D has been invalidated, it is too late to remove it from the printed ballots. So although it is void, when you see it on your ballot, remember: We, the voters of Utah, have the constitutional right to express our values and wishes regarding our government. We can do this by either representative or direct democratic actions, or both, as we choose, and by electing lawmakers AND supporting ballot initiatives as we see fit.

Kristin Goodwin grew up in Michigan, raised four kids mostly in Delaware and has been settled in Utah Valley for eight years. She graduated in flute performance from BYU and recently spent five years teaching elementary music full-time in Provo. She and her husband have been married for 25 years.