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10th Circuit Court rules against Utah Republican Party’s attempt to overturn signature-gathering election law

The Utah Republican Party lost a big legal battle Tuesday in its attempt to overturn a 2014 Utah election law that allows candidates to qualify for the ballot through the caucus-convention system and/or by collecting signatures.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld the law, called SB54, in a 2-1 decision, saying “states must have flexibility to enact reasonable, common-sense regulations designed to provide order and legitimacy to the electoral process.”

Republicans had argued that the law interfered with its constitutional right of association to select nominees as it chooses — and it preferred to use only the traditional caucus-convention system.