Utah's Initiative Process
Utah laws can be made by the Legislature or directly by the people through the Initiative Process. In 2018, it is likely that Utah voters will decide several initiatives in the general election.
To start the initiative process, Initiative Sponsors (at least 5 registered voters) file the proposed law and an Initiative Application with the Lieutenant Governor’s (LG) Office. The LG must accept the application, unless the new law would be unconstitutional, it is "nonsensical," it couldn’t become a law, it is too broad, or it duplicates an initiative run in the past 2 years.
Next, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) publishes an estimation of the initiative’s fiscal impact, which the Sponsors can accept or challenge with the Utah Supreme Court.
Sponsors must hold 7 hearings in different regions of the State. Minutes or recordings of the meetings are made public. After the hearings, the Sponsors may amend the language of the initiative.
The LG then prepares a Petition Packet, which consists of a title page, the text of the proposed initiative, signature sheets, and a page for the signature gatherer to verify the validity of the signatures.
Sponsors must gather lots of signatures—10% of all votes cast in Utah in the last Presidential election (10% of the 2016 total is 113, 143 signatures). Making it even more difficult, those signatures must be spread throughout the State in any 26 of the 29 state Senate districts. To amaze friends at parties, you could add, “For example, the 10% requirement would require that 4,273 signatures be gathered in Senate district 29, which, as I’m sure you know, is Washington County.”
County clerks verify whether the signers are in fact registered voters residing in that county. To be timely, signatures have to be submitted to the county clerks within 316 days from the day the application is filed with the LG, or by April 15th of a general election years if that is earlier (that’s why signature gathering happens primarily in odd-numbered (non-general election) years).
Finally, Utahns vote on the proposed initiative during the general election (which is on the first Tuesday in November on even-numbered years). Majority wins.