The Utah Legislature started the 2025 general session with a flurry of election-related bills, including one that will “significantly” affect voters who prefer mail-in ballots, according to Summit County Clerk Eve Furse.
Utah County Rep. Jefferson Burton sponsored House Bill 300 this year, which requires voters to manually sign-up for a mail-in ballot instead of receiving one automatically. The bill was passed by both the state Senate and House of Representatives, but it’s still awaiting Gov. Spencer Cox’s signature as of Monday afternoon.
“It was initially [a bill] that was meant to do away with mail-in voting. They amended it a number of times, and the version that we finally have does not do away with mail-in voting, but it does change it and introduces a new form of verification and then phases that in so that it’s fully in place by 2029,” Furse explained.
Voters will need to opt-in to receive a mail-in ballot by 2029, either when registering to vote or when obtaining and renewing a driver’s license. Furse said there will also be a way to opt-in electronically. It would be similar to the current system that allows voters to update their registration information online.
The Clerk’s Office will start requesting voters provide the last four digits of their Utah driver’s license, Utah ID or social security number as part of that process.
“If people don’t give us those numbers but they sign the ballot, we can validate off the signature instead of those numbers,” Furse said. “By 2029, there will be no opportunity to validate by the signature.”
Instead, voter verification will be based on the individual’s driver’s license, ID or Social Security number. If a voter doesn’t know their number, they’ll have to include a photocopy of a valid voter ID with their ballot. Furse said Clerk’s Office staff could verify the ballot that way.
She said she doesn’t necessarily think the bill will detrimentally affect voter participation rates, but there will need to be a big educational push before the 2029 deadline.
“It will take some action on their part, but it should be a fairly straightforward thing that they need to do, and they have four years to do it,” Furse said. “But it won’t be until 2029 that you will have had to have done it. You’ll still get your mail-in ballot normally this year if you’ve been receiving one and you’ve been voting.”
H.B. 300 also changes the deadline for mailing a ballot. Now, the Clerk’s Office has to receive the ballot by 8 p.m. on Election Day for it to be considered valid rather than having the envelope postmarked by then.
“Particularly if you’re mailing it because you’re out of state at the time, it means people really need to mail their ballots as quickly as they can after they receive them to make sure we receive them in time to be able to count them,” Furse said.
Additionally, the legislation makes it easier for people who are homebound to vote. Caretakers were already allowed to obtain ballots for homebound adults in long-term care facilities, but H.B. 300 streamlines the process and modifies eligibility to be more inclusive, according to Furse.
“They also made it available to somebody who’s not necessarily in the hospital or hospice but they can’t leave their home, so that’s a good thing and something for folks to keep in mind if they’re a caretaker of someone else,” she said.
Furse had previously expressed concerns about other legislation to the Summit County Council, including a bill that would have forced Summit County to implement a two-page ballot and another that would have discontinued the state’s partnership with the Electronic Registration Information Center.
Both failed to pass this year, but there was one successful bill that surprised Furse — House Bill 263, sponsored by Utah County Rep. Norman Thurston.
H.B. 263, which is similarly awaiting Gov. Cox’s signature, requires county clerks to create electronic copies of election records and maintain them for 12 years. The videos recorded of the dropboxes will be considered public records, too. Furse said it will cost the Clerk’s Office a lot of time and money.
She and other clerks across the state are also questioning how the data will be used.
“With the dropbox video, we don’t want to see voters targeted or their images used, generally, by people, so we’re reluctant for that to become a publicly accessible document that everybody can have of whoever’s dropping ballots at dropboxes,” Furse explained.
The bill came as a surprise to Furse because legislators also filed proposals attempting to protect election-related information, and H.B. 263 appears to conflict with that philosophy.
“It’s just in a different direction, so it seems to be sort of a disconnect between the same folks,” Furse said. “I’m not sure I fully understand the basis for that, but because H.B. 263 passed late, this is one that I’m hopeful there will be the ability to modify some of that to make it more workable both for clerks and more protective of voters.”
Furse also wanted to remind voters to focus on the general session while it’s ongoing, even though it’s a challenging time of year for many Summit County residents because it’s after the holidays and in the middle of ski season.
“Things happen quickly, and our representatives put a lot of weight in the communications they receive from their constituents,” she said. “If there are bills that concern people, please, please, please make sure you are contacting your state representatives, state senators as quickly as possible in order to protect your interests.”