Utah governor likely to sign legislation phasing out universal mail ballots

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah would stop mailing ballots to all voters automatically under a bill sent to its Republican governor as the state’s 2025 legislative session wrapped up on Friday. Voters who want to return their ballots by mail or to a drop box would need to write the last four digits of their driver’s license, state ID or Social Security number on the ballot return envelope. “But we also have concerns with security, and what we’re trying to balance in this bill is how do we enhance security and at the same time make voting easy?” Five Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the bill, which passed with veto-proof margins in the House and fell one vote short of a veto-proof majority in the Senate. “A big reason why we did that is because we received assurances from sponsors that they would continue to work with us to fix the remaining issues we have to help make sure voters aren’t hurt.” Tribal IDs would also be accepted under the version of the bill that cleared the Legislature, alleviating concerns that it would disenfranchise Native American voters in the last state that gave them access to the ballot box.