Here’s how many official signatures unions have gathered to repeal Utah’s collective bargaining ban

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Official numbers are starting to trickle in on signature-gathering in the referendum effort to repeal Utah’s new ban on collective bargaining.

While the coalition of unions — called Protect Utah Workers, led by the Utah Education Association — say they’ve collected more than 130,000 signatures, the only number that will count toward whether they indeed qualify for a ballot question to repeal HB 267 is the official signatures validated by Utah’s 29 county clerks and posted to the Utah Lt. Governor’s website.

On Monday, the first 371 validated signatures were posted.

Those numbers will continue to tick up in the coming days and weeks as the unions are required to turn in their signature packets by Wednesday and clerks continue to validate those who signed.

That also starts the clock for the efforts to repeal those signatures. By law, detractors have 45 days from the day each signature is posted to contact voters and try to convince them to rescind. Alternatively, signers can remove their signatures by notifying their county clerk within 30 days of signing.

By law, signers must be at least 18 years old, a registered Utah voter, and live in the Senate district where they’re signing in order for their signature to count.

Protect Utah Workers has until Wednesday, April 16, at 5 p.m. to collect the requisite signatures — which, in this case, is 140,748 or 8% of registered voters statewide. They also must meet that same 8% threshold in 15 of 29 Senate districts. Last week, the UEA said it had met its targets in six Senate districts.

Who’s behind the efforts?

Both Protect Utah Workers and their detractors — called Utahns for Worker Freedom, aka Protect All Utahns — have set up a Political Issues Committee (PIC) where donations and expenditures for the efforts are disclosed.

Protect Utah Workers has raised $2.6 million and spent $1.2 million on their efforts so far, with the largest donations coming from the UEA’s national affiliate, the Democratic-leaning National Education Association.

Utahns for Worker Freedom had not disclosed any donations as of this publication on their official PIC. However, the conservative Koch brothers’ backed political advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, and local conservative group Utah Parents United are running digital, social media, and broadcast ad campaigns on behalf of keeping the law in place, called “Decline to Sign.”

Political spending and donations like this can also be tricky to track because entities can set up what’s called a 501(c)(4), or a political non-profit, where donors can shield their identity behind few public disclosure rules. People and large donors can give to a (c)(4), which can then, in turn, donate to a PIC without being required to specify where their donations came from.