Utah voters will have to make choices this fall. And one of them will be their decision on Amendment C.
What is Amendment C?
Amendment C is a ballot measure that would change the Utah Constitution to ensure the county sheriff remains an elected position, according to the lieutenant governor’s office. Utah counties already elect their sheriffs per state statute, but the amendment would protect the election of county sheriffs under the Utah Constitution.
When would it take effect?
If the amendment passes, the change would take hold Jan. 1, 2025.
How did it come about?
Then-Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, introduced the proposed amendment in 2023. After its passage through the state Legislature, the amendment had to be voted on during the 2024 general election.
Who wants it and why?
When the bill was seen on the House floor, Wilson said it would protect the election of sheriffs “in perpetuity.”
“I personally believe, and know, it’s nice to vote for my sheriff,” Wilson said. He noted that Pennsylvania and New Jersey established the election of county sheriffs in 1776 — and the vast majority of the country’s 3,000 sheriffs are still elected.
Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Bicknell, added that the amendment would cement the sheriff’s authority as the supreme law enforcement officers across the state.
“We have BLM [Bureau of Land Management], Forest Service, park service — and those folks have law enforcement for their specific jurisdiction,” Albrecht said. “It’s my belief that this will protect our sheriffs under the constitution of the state of Utah as the premier law enforcement officer in our counties. It’s very important — the folks that represent those other entities are not elected by the people.”
The amendment passed the state Legislature with 72 votes in the House and 26 in the Senate. Neither chamber had votes against the amendment, but each logged three absent votes.
Jim Winder, former Salt Lake County sheriff and former Moab police chief, noted the amendment’s success in the Legislature — and said he believes “it’s going to pass significantly” with voters.
However, Winder questioned the Legislature’s urgency with this measure. “I haven’t seen a risk of them being unelected,” Winder said. “Is there a need for this?”
Winder, who now is retired and working as a consultant for public safety agencies and employee groups, said “it seems we’re more and more finding the need to put things in a constitution. … I don’t know why statutory modifications are no longer seen as effective, but they apparently are not.”
Amendment C does not appear to be part of any national push for new constitutional changes affecting sheriffs. Utah is the only state with a ballot measure this cycle dealing with the election of sheriffs, according to the website Ballotpedia. The website reported one similar measure in 2022, in Kansas, where voters approved an amendment to that state’s constitution to require counties to elect sheriffs (with the exception of one county that had already abolished the position).
How do sheriffs feel about the amendment?
Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, a Republican who also serves as president of the Utah Sheriffs’ Association, said during a 2023 hearing on the amendment that the change has been of “great importance” to the state’s sheriffs for many years.
“Especially in the turmoil that we see in our world today,” Smith said, “it is such an important thing to have an individual that is elected by the people and for the people as the only law enforcement position in the nation that is elected in that fashion to be able to represent them.”
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera, a Democrat, also added her support to the amendment during the 2023 hearing.
“It’s very important that the people get to choose who their law enforcement leader is in their county,” Rivera said. “This gives them the better opportunity to look into who their sheriff is, who is representing them as a people.”
