I pledge to perform the duties outlined in the party's governing documents for members of the State Central Committee (SCC):

• Attend quarterly meetings , and any special meetings.
• Govern (regulate) the party. Make party policy.
• Adopt bylaws consistent with the party constitution to govern subjects not covered by the party constitution.
• Advise the party chair, and approve or reject appointments by the chair. Approve or reject the next year's fiscal budget prepared by the Budget Committee.
• Fill officer vacancies within 90 days. Remove an officer if necessary.
• Elect a Constitution and Bylaws Committee and an Audit Committee. Fill any vacancies in these committees.
• Designate the date of the precinct caucuses held in even-numbered years.
• Designate the time and place of the state nominating convention, set the number of delegates, and (six months prior to the convention) certify the method of election of party nominees.
• Designate the time and place of the state organizing convention, set the number of county representatives to the state central committee, and (six months prior to the convention) certify the method of election of party officers.
• Replace any state-wide or federal office candidate who cannot represent the party in the General Election.

I will work to achieve the following:

• Champion our caucus/delegate/convention system.
  
  
  Neighbors choose trustworthy delegates to spend a substantive amount of time to study candidates and issues, and then to choose as party nominees those candidates who best understand the proper role of government. Spread the word about our awesome system! Read more.
  
  
• Promote state/local sovereignty.
  
  
  Utah is (supposed to be) a sovereign state. Any congressional act, executive order, judicial opinion, or bureaucratic regulation that exceeds the lawful authority expressly granted and enumerated in the Constitution should be ignored (nullified). Read more.
  
  
• Restore election integrity.
  
  
  Vote in person on Election Day in your precinct on a paper ballot that is counted by neighborhood election judges that night. Allow for absentee balloting upon request. No electronic equipment. Read more.
  
  
• Allocate delegate seats to the precincts.
  
  
  Currently, scores of delegates in other counties are "automatic" or "ex officio" delegates, meaning that they are delegates by virtue of a public or party office — not because they were elected to serve as a delegate. Read more.
  
  
• Allocate national delegates to presidential candidates proportionately.
  
  
  Currently, we employ a "winner take all" rule that distorts the votes that are cast in our national conventions, and there is no provision for the allocation of delegates when Utah's favorite candidate drops out of the presidential race. Read more.
  
  

More on the caucus/delegate/convention system:

• Every two years, neighbors meet to elect delegates they trust to choose good, wise, and honest candidates who are seeking their vote for public or party office.
• Delegates spend a substantive amount of time deciding which candidates are best. They meet and interview the candidates, study their voting records, and determine their positions on key issues.
• Candidates are forced to provide substantive answers to the questions a delegate asks. They cannot win the nomination with media advertisements (as is done in states where parties determine their nominees by direct primary elections); they must face savvy delegates.
• This personal, face-to-face approach usually results in the selection of candidates who understand the proper role of government, who support the party platform, and who have a strong allegiance to the constitution.
• Happily, our system emboldens good, wise, and honest challengers who might not have lots of money or a well-known name.
• We must educate our fellow Republicans and our fellow citizens, and inspire them with the virtues of our very republican system of selecting party nominees.
• Unfortunately, the Utah Legislature approved a bill in 2014, SB 54, which forces the party to put onto its Primary Election ballot the name of a candidate who gathers a certain number of signatures from Republicans throughout the state--without undergoing the scrutiny of convention delegates.
• This dual-track system benefit candidates--especially incumbents--who have a lot of money and/or a lot of name recognition (the "rich and famous"). This system is also a windfall for media outlets, as well-funded candidates pour the money of their donors into the media machine in hopes of swaying public opinion in their favor!
• Worst of all, having three or more candidates on the Primary Election ballot will more likely result in a plurality winner (with only 30% or 40% of the vote, for example) advancing to the General Election.
• We must elect to the state central committee candidates who ardently support the caucus/delegate/convention system, and who will not bend to the pressure of those who want to replace our republic with a democracy.

More on state/local sovereignty:

• In December of 2013, Judge Shelby rendered his opinion that Utah's definition of marriage is unconstitutional. Yet that definition lies within Utah's constitution, was put there by the people of Utah, and is therefore ("by definition") constitutional.
• Judge Shelby mistakenly believes that his (federal) opinion trumps that of the citizens of the state of Utah. Many public officials in Utah share his mistaken belief. This myth must be overcome.
• The feds have NO authority to tell Utah what to do in domestic matters such as marriage, divorce, education, and health care. NONE. Federal authority does NOT trump state authority in matters where such authority has not been expressly delegated to the central government in the Constitution.
• As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Kentucky Resolution of 1798, "That the several states who formed [the Constitution], being sovereign and independent, have the unquestionable right to judge of its infraction; and, That a nullification, by those sovereignties, of all unauthorized acts done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy."
• Any congressional act, any executive order, any judicial opinion, and any bureaucratic regulation that falls outside the bounds of lawful authority of the general government as specified by and enumerated in the Constitution should be ignored (nullified).
• I will evangelize the proper role of state government in the face of tyrannical encroachment by the central (general) government. We must stiffen our backbone against such infringement.

More on election integrity:

• Register to vote with appropriate identification and proof of citizenship. Require photo ID to vote (unless your neighborhood election judge knows you, and knows that you live in the precinct). Eliminate same-day registration and voting.
• Exit ERIC, which is a private firm (allegedly bankrolled by George Soros) that controls the voter rolls of states (like Utah) that subscribe to its services. Membership in ERIC by 2022 had grown to 31 states (unfortunately, Utah is a member). The good news is that some states have exited ERIC and half a dozen more have declared they will exit ERIC. Utah should manage its own voter roll.
• Vote in person. Mail-in ballots have been identified by numerous experts as a notorious source of election fraud due to chain-of-custody, identification, intimidation, and voter roll issues. In addition, despite the statements of proponents, mail-in ballots cannot by themselves be shown to increase voter turnout. Prohibit Internet voting.
• Eliminate early voting. Early voting increases the costs of campaigns to candidates, and makes poll watching almost impossible. Who can afford to sit at the polls for weeks (away from home, family, and work)? Permit a voter to request an absentee ballot if the voter cannot cast a ballot in person on Election Day.
• Invite neighbors in your precinct to administer elections in your precinct (as volunteers). Typically, this involves three election judges to greet and identify voters, manage the voter roll, distribute ballots, receive cast ballots, answer questions, etc., plus three counting judges who count the ballots, tally the election results, and phone those results to the county clerk. Volunteers are less expensive than computer systems and their programmers.
• Use paper ballots. Eliminate the use of computers. Now, I trust computers, but I do not trust computer programmers (I am one), and neither should you. Computers can be programmed to produce whatever result the programmer wants to achieve. Poll watchers cannot watch a computer count votes. And who knows whether the code (even if it is open-source code) is actually the code that is running on the computer?
• Random audits of the election process must become commonplace. Recounts of close elections should be done. County commissioners must have access to all election materials before voting to certify an election.
• Please visit SecureVote.News for more information, and to volunteer and/or donate to this effort.

More on the allocation of delegate seats:

• The state party constitution says that the "County Party shall designate, based upon the relative Republican strength of each precinct, the number of delegates to be elected in each individual caucus meeting" (Article XII Section 1 Paragraph A). Delegate seats that are not filled at the caucus may be filled by the county Central Committee (XII.1.D). Vacancies may be filled by appointment by the Precinct Chair (XII.2.D). Because no other method of allocation is specified in the constitution, other methods are precluded.
• While it could be argued that a party officer who cannot attend his caucus (because of his official duty to oversee caucuses, for example) deserves a delegate seat, the constitution does not currently allow this. And if even one automatic delegate seat is awarded in a manner other than the three methods described in the constitution, then logically ANY method of allocation or assignment is permissible.
• Electing delegates in precinct caucuses keeps the party close to the citizenry, and fortifies local control (you cannot get any more local than a precinct caucus). Some county party leaders occasionally argue for county "autonomy" in deciding how their delegate seats are to be allocated, but that represents a shift of power FROM the precincts TO the county party (less local control).
• The primary role of a delegate is to select individuals as nominees of the party; in this sense, they are ELECTORS, and electors must not be beholden to those they may select. The writers of the US Constitution articulated this independence of electors in Article II Section 1 (second paragraph), "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an Elector."
• Currently, neither Utah County nor Weber County have any automatic state delegates. And other counties seem to be moving in our direction.

More on allocating national delegates proportionately:

• In the 2008, Utah sent 36 delegates to the Republican National Convention. Of the 36 national delegates, 33 should have voted for Mitt Romney on the first ballot, 2 for John McCain, and 1 for Ron Paul. However, Romney dropped out, and the SCC decided that all 36 delegates must cast their votes for John McCain, who received only 5% of the popular vote in the presidential preference primary.
• Our "winner take all" rule does not reflect the will of the people, nor does it reflect the will of the delegates who are elected to represent the will of the people.
• I propose that, on the first ballot, our national delegates vote in proportion to the will of the electorate; and that if a candidate drops out of the race, the delegates are free to vote their consciences on subsequent ballots.