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H.B. 157
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6 AN ACT RELATING TO THE ELECTION CODE; SPECIFYING PROCEDURES FOR
7 SELECTING JUDICIAL NOMINEES TO BE CERTIFIED TO THE GOVERNOR; MAKING
8 TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS; AND PROVIDING AN EFFECTIVE DATE.
9 This act affects sections of Utah Code Annotated 1953 as follows:
10 AMENDS:
11 20A-12-104 (Effective 07/01/98), as last amended by Chapter 249, Laws of Utah 1997
12 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Utah:
13 Section 1. Section 20A-12-104 (Effective 07/01/98) is amended to read:
14 20A-12-104 (Effective 07/01/98). Procedures governing meetings of judicial
15 nominating commissions.
16 (1) The Judicial Council shall:
17 (a) enact rules establishing procedures governing the meetings of the judicial nominating
18 commissions; and
19 (b) ensure that those procedures include:
20 (i) a minimum recruitment period of 30 days and a procedure to extend that period for an
21 additional 30 days if fewer than nine applications are received for a judicial vacancy;
22 (ii) standards for maintaining the confidentiality of the applications and related documents;
23 (iii) standards governing the release of applicant names before nomination;
24 (iv) standards for destroying the records of the names of applicants, applications, and
25 related documents upon completion of the nominating process;
26 (v) an opportunity for public comment concerning the nominating process, qualifications
27 for judicial office, and individual applicants;
1 (vi) evaluation criteria for the selection of judicial nominees;
2 (vii) procedures for taking summary minutes at nominating commission meetings;
3 (viii) procedures for simultaneously forwarding the names of nominees to the governor,
4 the president of the Senate, and the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel; and
5 (ix) standards governing a nominating commissioner's disqualification and inability to
6 serve.
7 (2) (a) (i) Except as provided in this Subsection (2)(a)(ii), if a judicial nominating
8 commission receives 15 or more applications to fill a judicial vacancy, the nominating commission
9 shall submit at least five names to the governor.
10 (ii) Notwithstanding Subsection (2)(a)(i), if five applicants do not receive the required
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12 commission shall submit only the names of applicants that received the required number of votes,
13 but must submit the names of at least three applicants.
14 (b) In determining whether or not to submit an applicant's name to the governor, a
15 commission may not decline to consider an applicant merely because:
16 (i) the nominating commission had declined to submit that candidate's name to the
17 governor to fill a previous vacancy;
18 (ii) a previous nominating commission had declined to submit that candidate's name to the
19 governor; or
20 (iii) that nominating commission or a previous nominating commission had submitted the
21 applicant's name to the governor and the governor selected someone else to fill the vacancy.
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7 (3) (a) Voting for the selection of nominees may differ from voting during the screening
8 process. Voting may occur in one or two more rounds, depending on the outcome of each round.
9 Each commissioner is allotted a number of votes for each round equal to the number of nominees
10 remaining to be selected. For the selection of nominees for a trial court, each commissioner has
11 five votes during the first round. If one nominee is selected during the first round, each
12 commissioner has four votes during the next round. If there are multiple vacancies, the number
13 of votes allotted to each commissioner during each round of voting is multiplied by the number
14 of vacancies, and the commission selects nominees as a pool without matching any vote or any
15 candidate to a particular vacancy.
16 (b) Voting is by confidential ballot.
17 (c) A commissioner may not cast more than one vote for a single candidate during any
18 single round of voting.
19 (d) A commissioner must cast all allotted votes in each round.
20 (e) Any candidate receiving in any round a number of votes one less than the number of
21 voting commissioners present is selected as a nominee. If, after any round of voting, a candidate
22 receives two or fewer votes, the candidate is removed from consideration during subsequent
23 rounds of voting. The commission should further debate the qualifications of candidates who are
24 neither selected nor removed from consideration before conducting the next round of voting.
25 Voting and discussion continues until the requisite number of nominees have been selected.
26 (f) The commission can reconsider its action on any candidate upon a majority vote to do
27 so.
28 (g) If after full deliberation the commission is unable to agree upon the required number
29 of nominees in the above described manner, those candidates not removed from consideration shall
30 be considered to be tied within the meaning of Section 20A-12-105(3), and the commission may
31 certify up to two additional names.
1 (h) The total vote tally, but not the vote of individual commissioners, is recorded in the
2 minutes. After the vote tallies are verified and recorded, the ballots are destroyed.
3 (4) Unless the commission determines that there are not five qualified applicants, a list of
4 five names shall be certified to the governor for his selection, but in no event shall fewer than three
5 names be certified.
6 (5) The governor may reject the initial list sent by the commission and request a new list,
7 but the timelines for selection remain as provided by the Utah Constitution.
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9 not retained by the voters for the office for which the justice or judge was defeated until after the
10 expiration of that term of office.
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12 Chapter 4, Open and Public Meetings, and Title 63, Chapter 46a, Utah Administrative Rulemaking
13 Act.
14 Section 2. Effective date.
15 This act takes effect on July 1, 1998.
Legislative Review Note
as of 1-27-98 7:00 PM
A limited legal review of this bill raises no obvious constitutional or statutory concerns.
Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel
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