Utah’s general primaries for the 2026 midterm election will be on June 23, with four House of Representatives positions to be voted on. The Senate seats are not up for election in this midterm cycle.
Utah runs a closed Republican primary and an open Democrat primary. For the closed primary, voters needed to be affiliated with the Republican party before April 1 in order to vote. The Democrat primary is open to any registered voter of any party affiliation. As with any state’s primaries, citizens can only vote in one of the political parties’ elections.
AP US Government and Politics teacher Brodie Reid explained, “It’s a different kind of election, because the primaries are focused on a certain base of voters, and then there’s gonna be a different strategy during the general election. So, I think you’re gonna see a lower participation rate, not because people don’t want to, but because they just don’t understand it.” Out of 20 surveyed Skyline students, 10% reported that they didn’t know how to vote in primaries.
For students looking to vote in them this year, they must be 18 years old by June 23. The registration deadline is June 12, unless citizens choose to do same day registration at a polling location. Students can register to vote at vote.utah.gov by providing information such as a mailing address and Driver’s License or State ID number.
This way of registration may change in upcoming months if Republicans successfully pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act. The bill is a new version of the 2025 SAVE Act that passed in the House of Representatives but ultimately died in the Senate, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The new SAVE America Act passed the House in February but is currently yet to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
The bill is being sponsored by Utah Senator Mike Lee. “I hope students are aware of it if their own senator […] is the one that’s putting it in place,” Reid said. The SAVE America Act outlines that voters will be required to show documentary proof of citizenship in person in order to register for federal elections and will later need to provide photo ID in order to vote. The goal is to limit noncitizen voter fraud in US elections.
Skyline Club America/Turning Point USA member Brigham Harmon supports the SAVE America Act. He said, “If you aren’t an American citizen, you shouldn’t be voting in American elections, and I think that pretty much sums it up.” Current elections utilize back-end citizenship verification methods (such as the US Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program implemented in 2025) that compare provided ID information with government records. The SAVE America Act would further this citizenship verification on the front-end, putting more responsibility on citizens where it’s previously been on the government.
For this front-end verification, certain restrictions are put on what counts as satisfactory documentary proof. Documentary proof is outlined in the bill itself as a REAL ID that indicates citizenship, a passport, a military identification card (alongside a military record that indicates US birth), or a valid photo ID that indicates US birth. For those without this, they may also provide a valid photo ID lacking indication of citizenship if they also provide a certified US birth certificate, a US hospital Record of Birth, a final adoption decree that indicates US birth, a Consular Report of Birth Abroad, a Naturalization Certificate/Certificate of Citizenship, or an American Indian Card.
An anonymous student said, “Requiring ID to vote is very reasonable and should be expected, and I don’t know how people would vote if that wasn’t a step in the process. […] In reality, every person who votes should have a government ID and be a citizen of the United States anyway.” While it is already true that voters have an ID that they used to register, a REAL ID in most states isn’t enough to prove citizenship under the proposed law. According to the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), only five states issue IDs that indicate citizenship, and Utah is not included.
This means that another form of identification would be required for people registering to vote in Utah, which for most would likely be a passport or a birth certificate. The BPC reports that 12% of registered voters lack at least one of these documents. Additionally, married women who have changed their last name will likely need to provide a marriage certificate alongside a birth certificate and ID in order to properly verify their identity for registration. Minorities are also more likely to be affected if this bill were to pass, as the League of Women Voters states, “Citizens of color are three times more likely to lack documents […] or face difficulties accessing them.”
Some students expressed concern about the bill for these reasons. “I believe this act is quite dangerous. It will further disenfranchise marginalized communities. We need all voices heard in our politics,” said SBO Secretary Jarius McCarthy. In its goal to stop noncitizen voting (which is shown to be a minor problem in a recent comprehensive citizenship review of two million Utah voters that yielded only one registered noncitizen and no noncitizen votes cast), the bill could accidentally stop citizens from voting. Progressive Action Club president Alex Rampton said, “The SAVE America Act engrandizes an issue that is not a very large issue in order to disenfranchise people’s votes, and that’s why I think that it’s a bad idea.”
It is uncertain if the SAVE America Act will be passed at this time. With the current filibuster in the Senate, the Republican party has been unable to meet the 60 required votes in order to turn the bill into law. However, other pieces of legislation, specifically at the Utah state level, will certainly impact midterms.
Utah’s citizen referendum Proposition 4, which requires congressional maps to be drawn by an independent redistricting committee, has found its footing in law after a battle between legislators and the courts. This means that, by midterm elections, maps lacking partisan gerrymandering will be in place.
For those who are more right-leaning like Harmon, the referendum is seen as “a little ridiculous.” For those who are more liberal like Rampton, “it is heartening.” With the previous maps, Utah was a solidly red state. “If things go the way things are looking right now, the Republican party will probably lose a district,” says Harmon.
Rampton adds, “It’ll give people hope as they’re voting. If they feel like no matter what they vote they’re gonna lose, they can be like, ‘Okay, well, hey, maybe my party has a chance of winning.’ […] I am grateful that we will have more representation for Democratic voters in Utah that historically has not been there.”
