PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 20, 2024
Lyman Responds to Calls for Legislative Audit of Signature Process
SALT LAKE CITY — Phil Lyman, Republican convention nominee and write-in candidate for governor, has issued a statement responding to ABC4’s article stating that incumbent Governor Spencer Cox, in conjunction with Senate candidate John Curtis and Attorney General candidate Derek Brown, has called for a legislative audit of the signature-gathering process at the Davis County Clerk’s office. Cox, Curtis, and Brown all failed to advance to a primary via the Republican Party convention in April 2024 and relied on the signature path to keep their campaigns alive. Lyman and others have expressed concern about the validity of the nomination petitions, as the state continues to obstruct access to unredacted lists of the names that signed in favor of these candidates. By law, candidates such as Lyman are owed names in the “private” category, while the “withheld” category is at the discretion of the state. Currently only the “public” category has been released, leaving 40% of the data redacted.
“Utah deserves accountability from its elected officials and state agencies,” said Lyman. “Announcing an audit of ‘the process’ is a smokescreen. We do not believe that Spencer Cox has the requisite number of original signatures. At no point have we been determined to obtain a list of ‘signatures.’ We want satisfaction that requirements were met for Cox to force a primary election when there was a single Republican convention winner for the governor’s race. The email announcing the call for the audit was sent to ABC4 by Adlai Elison, the political director at Election Hive, the same company that manages the Cox re-election campaign. It is no surprise, given that this request is pure political campaign theatrics. We are dealing with a deeply corrupt system. This is the foxes proposing an audit of the hen house. We want to investigate the foxes.”
Of note, Spencer Cox has paid Election Hive over half a million dollars, the vast majority of it for “campaign management services,” since June 2023. AG candidate Derek Brown has also paid Election Hive over $30,000 as part of his campaign.
“We will not be placated, much less abandon our fight, by a kangaroo audit intimately tied to the same company that runs Spencer Cox’s campaign. What utter nonsense,” Lyman concluded.
