Rep. Calvin Musselman, R-West Haven, left, and Rep. Joel Ferry, R-Brigham City greet each othe ras the Utah Legislature opens the 2021 general session at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. (Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Democrats now taking their case over whether a Box Elder lawmaker violated separation of powers to the Utah Supreme Court. On Thursday, a federal judge ruled that she wasn’t going to block former Rep. Joel Ferry’s name from being printed on ballots in Box Elder County.
The Utah Democratic Party claims Ferry did in fact violate the separation of powers by serving as a member of the House of Representatives and director of the Utah Division of Natural Resources for months at the same time. He finally resigned under pressure.
Democratic party Chair Diane Lewis says they aren’t giving up without a fight.
“We are not giving up fighting for the rights of voters in HD-1 to choose their own representative instead of having their legislator picked by a small group of party insiders,” Lewis said in a news release. “That means the next step is to take our case to the Utah Supreme Court, asking them to rule on the LG’s decision to certify Mr. Ferry as being qualified for the general election ballot when he is clearly not, and Mr. Ferry’s violation of the separation of powers provisions in the Utah Constitution.”
However, the Democrats need the court to act quickly as ballots will soon be printed. The ballots will start being mailed out in a few weeks.
Mark Jones contributed to this article.
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