We aren’t taking this lying down and neither should you.

Sponsors turned in over 6,000 signatures to put Ordinance 987 and Dakota Pacific on the November ballot, far exceeding state requirements. But Summit County Clerk Eve Furse threw them out, citing “improper binding” of some packets. Our packets followed Utah law. Now, a new group of legal petitioners is fighting back, but we’re not just fighting the Clerk; we are fighting the clock.

If our packets aren’t reinstated by the end of August, we’ll miss the ballot print deadline. Our attorneys are moving fast. We go before Third District Court Judge Richard Mrazik for a decision soon.

This fight has already been complex and costly:

  • Our attorneys and volunteers met with Clerk and her taxpayer funded outside to defend the packets and ask Clerk Furse to count signatures before the deadline. She refused.

  • We pursued a costly Temporary Restraining Order to force Clerk to count signatures and post them to Lieutenant Governor’s website. She agreed to a stipulated order and posted them on a conditional basis while we pursue validation through the courts.

  • We filed a motion for Summary Judgement supported by declarations from all volunteer signature gatherers and asked the Clerk to stand down given the clear will of Summit County voters and the good faith efforts of all volunteers. She refused.

  • We waited for a response from Clerk’s Counsel. It eventually came in at dozens of pages (costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars) and raised numerous claims that the Clerk’s lawyers even acknowledge are “immaterial.”

  • We spent tens of thousands more responding to the many immaterial claims and submitted a final brief on August 11th.

  • We are now preparing for a court hearing to be rescheduled any day now

A bipartisan Utah Legislative Rules and Oversight Committee said Clerk Furse appears to be overstepping, but that won’t help us before ballots are printed. The court is our only path.


If you signed the petition, THANK YOU. To know if your signature was counted, check here or here. If you do not see your name, please let us know at protectsummitcounty@gmail.com so we can investigate.

We now need every dollar possible to keep fighting a fight our Clerk seems determined to make as expensive as possible for Summit County voters.

Thank you for your ongoing support!