UTAH STATE CAPITOL—As the legislature hits the halfway mark, several bills are gaining some attention. Here are a few that were discussed by the Senate leadership Feb. 10.

HB479 Election Code Modifications

“After a ballot is mailed to a voter, the voter, with certain exceptions, would be required to return the ballot in person to a polling place where the voter must provide valid voter identification.” 

“We’ll be reviewing that bill at length,” said Sen. Mike McKell, R-Utah County. “It feels very similar to last year. I think we need to look at it and have a long discussion about that bill and see where everybody’s at.”

“We want high voter turnout,” said Senate President J. Stuart Adams. “We want to make it easy for people to vote and we want secure elections.”

“I think the concern is accessing the staffing,” said Sen. Luz Escamilla, D-Salt Lake County. “I mean, for a clerk’s office to run that level of intense staffing, it’s expensive. I think there’s been other work on the signature notification which I think maybe meets the need. If you’re making sure that signature is there, why are we putting any barriers to that?”

“I think one of the other questions is we have people that aren’t very ambulatory and have a tough time getting out,” said Adams. “How do you do that? But it is more secure and we’ve heard from our constituency that they want a secure process. I’m sure we’ll have a great discussion and where we land we’ll know hopefully before day 45.”

Statewide Financial Crimes Intelligence Center

“This was actually brought to me by the Utah Bankers Association as well as the Credit Union Association,” said Sen. Kirk Cullimore, R-Draper. “They said that they’re having a significant increase in financial scams and they’re getting more sophisticated. We used to think it was for grandma who got scammed on the phone or something like that.”

The sophistication level has risen so much that it’s affecting everybody, he said. “It’s affecting their ability to operate. It’s using up a significant amount of their time. I think in 2024 there was $114 million that came out of Utah by scammers and that amount is increasing by at least $20 million to $30 million a year.”

So they’re very interested in getting cohesive units somewhere in the state that can specialize in these types of crimes, said Cullimore. “That would be housed in the Attorney General’s Office and they’re willing to take that on. Because of the size of this and the growing capacity, it’s probably only going to grow with AI.”

SB232 Regulatory Impacts on Families 

This bill “requires state agencies, counties, municipalities, and local school boards to

consider the impact of certain governmental actions on families.”

“I’m not looking at any specific state policies for people,” said Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-Salt Lake City. “I will recommend a book called ‘Family Unfriendly,’ by Timothy Carney. In that book it talks a lot about societal changes and government regulations and how those have unintended consequences on family formation and family size. I really do think that the birth rate falling around the world, the country and in Utah is a major issue.”

Lincoln said he believes that if it doesn’t change the future will be much darker than what Utah has enjoyed here for many generations.

“So SB232 just requires political subdivisions and government agencies when they’re making rules they should consider what the impact is going to be on family stability and family formation,” he said. “Just so they’re proactively thinking about it.”

“We’re actually not funding growth anymore because the number of kids from 12 to 18 is actually declining,” said Adams. “That’s for the first time ever in the last couple of years in Utah so that’s a staggering number in my opinion. Our fatalities or people passing away are higher than our birth rate in Utah.”

For more information about bills or to follow the session visit https://le.utah.gov/.