Recent court decisions on redistricting are generating public controversy. Driven by a 2024 Utah Supreme Court ruling, a Utah judge tossed out the Utah Legislature’s congressional map, replacing it with a map she chose from several provided by advocacy groups opposed to the Legislature’s map. Experienced political strategists conclude that the Legislature’s map produced four districts with a modest Republican advantage, whereas the judge’s map produced a heavy partisan advantage in all four districts (three strongly Republican districts and one strongly Democratic district).
Do voters agree or disagree with the court-driven process produced by proponents of Proposition 4? Sutherland Institute recently commissioned Y2 Analytics to conduct a survey of Utah voters to investigate this question.
Who should decide the boundaries for congressional districts?
By a 63-point margin, Utah voters believe that the policymakers they elect should be making redistricting decisions over judges. A full 71% of Utah voters say that an elected body or elected official at the state or county levels ought to have primary responsibility to decide congressional maps, compared to 8% who say judges should be primarily responsible. A plurality of Utah voters say that a body elected by the people (e.g., the Utah Legislature or county council) should be making redistricting decisions, while 21% of voters say it should be a state-level elected official (e.g., the governor), and 15% say it should be a county-level elected official (e,g., a county mayor).
Net support for elected policymakers over judges in redistricting is 73 points among Republican voters (76% for elected officials compared to 3% for judges) and 52 points among Democrat voters (69% for elected officials compared to 17% for judges). Among men and women, on the other hand, net support for elected officials is almost identical (63 points for men and 62 points for women).
What about the Utah Legislature specifically?
A full 60% of Utah voters believe that the Legislature should have some role in drawing district maps, while 40% of voters believe they should have no role. Among the group of Utah voters who think the Legislature should have a role in redistricting, 45% of them believe that legislators should pick from maps approved by a commission, 40% believe legislators should set district boundaries with an advisory commission to assist, and 15% believe that the Legislature should have sole decision-making authority.
What do voters want from redistricting?
Utah voters seem to clearly oppose the idea of judges deciding on congressional maps, preferring that the elected officials they choose make redistricting decisions. On the other hand, voters also seem to reject the idea that the Utah Legislature should have the sole authority over redistricting – preferring instead that a commission assist the Legislature in one form or another in making that policy decision.
In short, Utah voters seem to favor a commission similar to the one created by Prop. 4, but without the judicial intervention created by Prop. 4. However, this policy outcome is arguably precluded by the Utah Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in League of Women Voters v. Utah State Legislature, since the ability to sue to enforce Prop. 4 would likely be determined to be a critical element of the Prop. 4 ballot initiative.
Conclusion: A Path Forward
The survey results seem to point to the following process as the most viable path toward producing what voters say they want to see in redistricting: (1) repeal Prop. 4 and then, (2) enact via legislative means a redistricting commission of some kind to assist the Legislature in redistricting.
The first step in this process is being undertaken by a proposed ballot initiative to repeal Proposition 4. The second step has, as of yet, not been contemplated publicly. As both lawmakers and judges continue to debate what the people intended when they enacted Prop. 4, they should keep in mind what voters themselves report in survey research.
Methodology
Registered Utah voters were randomly sampled from a previously recruited voter opinion panel and from the Utah voter file.
n = 623 interviews using self-administered online interviews with invitations sent via email and text. Interviews were fielded September 24 – October 6, 2025
Margin of error: +/- 3.9 percentage points
The data were weighted to match the demographics of Utah registered voters in regard to gender, age, race, education level, political party registration, and congressional district.
