Utah County Clerk’s Office Confirms Middle Name Omission from Candidate Filings Was Deliberate on part of Lt. Governor

I just got off the phone with the Utah County clerk’s office about the missing middle names from the candidate filings this year. The supervisor to whom my question was raised informed me that they had been instructed by the Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson’s office not to allow any candidates to file a declaration of candidacy with the full middle name for any state office, unless an exceptional circumstance detailed in last year’s SB54 candidate filing legislation was met, and that this was the way the new legislation was being interpreted by the Lt. Governors office.

The county officer said that all County offices were still allowing middle names to be included on the Declaration of candidacy, but she could not grant an exception for state offices since they are under the direction of the Lt. Governor’s office. Several other candidates have expressed disgust over this new requirement as well.

You can see in the 2024 candidate filings that there are dozens of candidates whose filing includes a middle name. In this year’s filings, while some candidates have a middle initial, the only candidates who have a middle name are those who use it in place of their first name or have a nickname.

You can compare them here:

https://vote.utah.gov/2024-candidate-filings/