Voting 101: A guide to the 2018 election

This week, Timpview Journalism will be encouraging the Juniors and Seniors to register to vote. People are often turned off by the idea of voting because they believe nothing will change, and they can’t see how their vote would matter in the grand scheme of things. To dissuade you from those beliefs, here is a guide for all the issues that citizens of Provo will be voting on on Tuesday November 6.

Propositions:

Definition: a piece of proposed legislation to be approved or rejected by eligible voters.

Non Binding Opinion Question #1: This question states, “To provide additional funding for public education and local roads, should the state increase the state motor and special fuel tax rates by an equivalent of 10 cents per gallon?” This would be giving the Utah Legislature information on the opinion of the people, and they would later vote on whether or not to propose a law.

Proposition #2: This asks whether or not a law should be made to expand the number of people who can access medical marijuana, and allow private facilities to legally produce and distribute marijuana. Under current Utah law, marijuana can only be grown, processed, or sold by the state.

Proposition #3: This asks whether or not a law should be made to expand the state Medicaid health coverage program. If enacted, this law would increase the state sales tax rate, and expand Medicaid to low-income adults who were previously not eligible.

Proposition #4: This asks whether or not a law should be made to create a commission that would recommend new voting districts for Congressional, legislative, and state school board districts. Those appointed would be required to be politically inactive.

Constitutional Amendments:

Amendments to Utah’s constitution

Amendment A: This proposes that those in the military would be exempt from property tax if their service is at least 200 days in a continuous 365-day period. Currently, the law states that this service has to be within one calendar year. So if someone served for 3 months at the end of the year and 4 months at the beginning of the year, they would not be exempt from property tax.

Amendment B: This proposes that any private owner that leases property to the government would be exempt from property tax. People who support this say that it simplifies tax policy, while critics say that this will result in a tax increase for other taxpayers in the state who do not lease property to the government.

Amendment C: This would authorize the state legislature to call for a special session outside of the regular 45-day general session. Currently, only the governor is authorized to call for a special session

City Bond

This city council decided to put the authorization of the Provo Police, Fire and City Facilities Bond, up to the voters in provo. The bond would equate to $69 million, and the money would be used to construct new buildings for provo’s police department, fire department, emergency dispatch, and other city departments. If voted through, the bond would increase property taxes.

Next year, Provo is planning on proposing another School Bond, which would be used to rebuild Timpview and other elementary schools in Provo.

Elected Officials

US Senate (One seat in the senate is on the ballot because Orrin Hatch is retiring, Mike Lee is not up for reelection until 2022)

Tim Aalders, Constitution party
Craig R. Bowden, Libertarian party
Reed C. McCandless, Independent American
Jenny Wilson, Democratic party
Mitt Romney, Republican party

US House of Representatives. (Provo is in Utah Congressional district 3)

John Curtis (currently holds seat), Republican party
James Courage Singer, Democratic party
Timothy L. Zeidner, United Utah party
Gregory C. Duerden, Independent American.

Utah State Senate (Provo is within districts 15, 16, and 7, and 15 is the only one on the ballot)

Keith Grover (currently holds seat), Republican party
Lee D. Houghton, United Utah party
Tommy Williams, Independent American

Utah House of Representatives (Provo is within districts 48, 61, 63, and 64)

District 48

Keven J. Stratton (currently holds seat), Republican party

Aaron Heineman, Independent American

District 61

Eric Chase, United Utah

Marsha Judkins (currently holds seat), Republican party

Matt Styles, Green party

District 63

Adam Robertson is running unopposed

District 64

Norm Thurston (currently holds seat), Republican party

Daniel Craig Friend, Democratic party

Hal Miller, United Utah party

Utah State School Board

Provo is in district 13, no one is up for reelection

Utah County Clerk/ Auditor (The county clerk is in charge of all of the records of the county)

Jason Christensen, Independent American
Amelia Powers, Republican party

Utah County Attorney (The chief legal officer for Utah County)

David O. Leavitt, Republican party
W. Andrew McCullough, Libertarian party

Utah County Commission Seat A (County commissioners are in charge of levying taxes, adopting ordinances, and making policy that affects Utah County)