SALT LAKE CITY – Utah Democrats are calling out state Republicans over the disarray demonstrated by their caucus night on Mar. 5 and – for a change – the GOP hasn’t got much of a leg to stand on.
“The dysfunction of the Republican caucus was a total embarrassment,” according to Thom DeSirant, the executive director of the Utah Democratic Party.
Many voters who showed up to participate in the Utah GOP’s closed presidential preference polling on Mar. 5 during neighborhood caucuses throughout the state were confronted with long lines, broken registration systems and a general sense of disorder and confusion.
Democrats gleefully point out that, while Utah Democrats prioritized inclusivity and transparency in their primary process, the Utah GOP’s caucus debacle serves as a cautionary tale of what awaits the county if their divisive and inept leadership is allowed to prevail.
Utah Republican Party chair Robert Axson defended his party’s decision to use the mostly volunteer-run caucus system for the first time since 2016, saying that the caucus process was meant to restore a sense of community in politics.
Despite a delay in processing results from the 2,300 neighborhood caucus locations that made Utah the last of 15 states to report primary results on Super Tuesday, Axson stoically called the GOP process “successful” and downplayed the technical glitches that frustrated voters.
But People4Utah seemingly intends to make Republicans learn from their caucus night mistakes, whether they like it or not.
On Mar. 8, the non-profit group sent a text message to many of the state’s registered Republicans.
That message invited its recipients to rate their experience with the GOP presidential preference poll on a scale from 1 (meaning Very Unsatisfied) to 5 (meaning Very Satisfied).
The People4Utah message also suggested that voters provide specific feedback about their experiences on Mar. 5 to Axson at [email protected].
DeSirant attributes the GOP chaos on Mar. 5 to the party’s fixation with limiting the primary franchise to Republican voters.
“Instead of opting to participate in a secure and accessible process through a state-run primary – like the Democratic Party did – the Utah GOP chose to shut out (open) voter participation, so it should not be a surprise that their caucuses devolved into disorganized chaos,” he observed.
“The sheer incompetence displayed by the Utah Republican Party mirrors the chaos that Donald Trump – their presumptive nominee – threatens to bring to America if he is sent back to the White House this November.”
People4Utah is a non-partisan, non-profit group that seeks to amplify the voice of every Utahn and bring people together in creating a fairer, more representative democracy for our state.