Utah Lawmaker Introduced Measure to Recall U.S. Senators

A Utah state lawmaker proposed a new measure last week that would allow voters to recall a United States senator, despite the provision being unlikely to survive a legal challenge.

Utah State Representative Tim Quinn introduced a measure on January 29 that would allow Utah voters to recall a United States Senator, one week before Romney announced his decision to vote to convict the president.

At the time, Quinn said he was not introducing the legislation to recall Romney, but he acknowledged that it sparked the question.

“If I had a dollar for everyone who asked me today if this was about” Sen. Romney, “I would have $20,” said Quinn to Utahpolicy.com.

Quinn told the website that voters should be allowed to revisit a senator’s six-year term.

“The only office, for federal or state or even local offices, that is six years is the U.S. Senate,” he said. “That is a long time before constituents can speak.”

The bill would trigger a recall election only if 25 percent of voters who voted in the general election signed a recall petition.

Utah currently does not have a recall provision.

Some states allow the recall of state officials, but only Montana, Nevada, and Arizona have recall provisions of all public officials in the state.

The founding fathers ultimately considered and rejected including a recall provision in the Constitutional Convention.