Brian Jenkins for Senate

 Brian is a local celebrity that looks like Abraham lincoln. He is related to Lincoln on his father's side. 

Brian grew up on a farm in the little town of Circleville in Piute County. He was an all-state basketball player and state champion pole vaulter.

Brian served a 2-year mission to Japan for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After his mission he attended Brigham Young University and graduated in International Relations.

After graduating from BYU, Brian lived and worked in Japan, Korea and Switzerland. In Zurich, Brian met his wife to be, Diana. They were married in the Frankfurt, Germany temple and lived and worked for a year in Switzerland but raise their son and daughter in Utah.

While studying at BYU, Brian met a constitutional thinker and author named Cleon Skousen. Cleon gave Brian a box of books and a course called, “The Making of America.” Since finishing Cleon Skousen’s course, Brian feels that liberty has never looked quite the same to him. 

In 2006, when Brian was running for the United States Senate, the candidates were invited to speak at a County Republican Convention. The incumbent was assigned the first speaking slot; which allowed him to leave and attend a second convention in Box Elder County. The rest of the candidates had to wait over an hour to speak and were unable to attend the Box Elder County Convention. At the time, Brian did not suspect any collusion. 

But maybe the founders would have been suspicious. They believed that unscrupulous men would capture positions of power if they could. So they created a constitution based on checks and balances to limit the harm that individuals could perpetrate.

Limited government means that whether a position is held by a person with good intent or bad intent didn't matter quite so much because no position in our government is unchecked. The legislative, the executive, and the judiciary are all checking one another and preventing any one branch from mischief. 

Not all people are excited about limited government. Some people see the wrangling and checking between the three branches as a bad thing. Gridlock. But Brian believes that the founders built it into our system of government intentionally.

Brian believes that separation of powers is one of the great keys of American Liberty and prosperity. And it could be argued that there is another, essential branch of the government-We the People. The people represent their neighborhoods, vett the candidates, vote their consciences and make sure that the party delegates select the nominees.

 Statewide, about 250 delegates that should be chosen in precinct caucuses are withheld from the precincts. Party leadership gives those delegate positions to committee members and party leaders that the party believes should be voting delegates. The precinct leaders usually don't know those delegate positions were taken. Those unelected delegates are called automatic delegates or ex-officio delegates.

They are a violation of the Utah Republican Party Constitution. It is estimated that those unconstitutional delegates vote about 80% in sync with the party leadership. That means about 80% of the automatic delegates vote to keep automatic delegates. That makes it difficult to undo the perpetuation of what Brian believes are delegates that are contrary to the party Constitution. And they insulate the convention outcome from the delegates will. That removes the safeguard and the purpose of the people in the Democratic process of our mighty Republic.

Utah County and Tooele County eliminated unconstitutional automatic delegates some years ago. But they are the only counties in Utah that Brian knows of that have done so. Utah Republican party leadership has argued that because the bylaws allow ex-officio delegates, it is legal to take them from the precincts. The bylaws are in violation of the Utah Republican Party Constitution. Brian believes that the Party Constitution is superior to the bylaws; and, that the bylaw allowing automatic delegates violates the Party’s Constitution. That bylaw change was made by one of those committees that are composed mostly of automatic delegates. Those committees cannot modify the Utah Republican party Constitution. So they create a bylaw contrary to the Constitution and operate as though the bylaw trumped the Utah Republican party Constitution. 

Statewide there are currently about 250 such unconstitutional delegates that should be returned to the precincts. These unconstitutional delegates allow Party Leadership to alter the outcome of close convention votes. 

Possibly the most injurious change in the nominating process happened in 2012. An anonymous $25,000 donation earmarked for electronic balloting was made to the Utah Republican party. Two of the four State Party leaders believed that the electronic voting was unverifiable. Those two leaders, Brian and other delegates, went to the Republican party leadership and expressed their concerns about unverifiable voting.

The Vice-chair at the time was a computer programmer named Lowell Nelson. He explained that he could make electronic voting verifiable; and, would do it free of charge. 

Of the three voting members of the Republican party leadership participating in that meeting, two were opposed to electronic voting as proposed and the chair alone was in favor of it. Yet, the party proceeded with the unverifiable electronic voting; and, has used it from 2012 until today.

Prior to the 2012 election cycle the nominating convention ran into cheating from time to time. Brian and others believed that cheating would occur if there were not enough safeguards to prevent it. Brian argues that though there has been no apparent cheating in the past 12 years, there has been no verifiability so no way to know. 

An argument in favor of electronic voting is that it is quicker. But such has not been the case. Prior to changing to electronic voting, the four districts met separately and selected the nominees without having the delegates sit idle during candidate selection that did not involve them. With a single electronic vote system, the districts must wait their turn. The longest State conventions have occurred since the implementation of electronic voting. If it were necessary to have long conventions in order to make sure that the delegates select our nominees, it would be worth it. But paper ballots are quicker than electronic voting. Ironically, prevention of cheating has been one of the reasons given for using electronic voting. As electronic voting has opened the door for voter fraud at the federal level, so also has it opened the door for cheating in Utah's nominating convention.

In 2018 Brian was running for United States Senate and was talking to the delegates about this very issue and the need to return to paper ballots. Suddenly, he was facing an FEC charge for a campaign finance reporting violation. That forced Brian to halt his campaign and address the charges. Brian thinks it was a shot across the bow letting him know that resistance to electronic voting would be met with whatever means were necessary to protect it. 

Delegates will have an opportunity at our convention on April 27th to vote for paper ballots, and to reject unconstitutional ex-officio delegates. Section 12 of the Utah Republican Party Constitution requires that the delegates have ballots. It is his argument that a click does not constitute a ballot. Certainly, the verifiability of a ballot is different than the verifiability of an electronically cast vote. Many eyes are involved in the cast and tally when it's done on paper. Under our nominating conventions current system, cast can be verified but the total tally cannot be verified. 

In previous years, the delegates have presented motions to return our party to constitutional delegates and paper balloting, but without success. Let this be the year that the Utah Republican Party nominating convention returns to verifiable paper ballots and returns the selection of the 250 ex-officio delegates to their rightful precincts and thereby to the people as demanded in the Utah Republican Party Constitution. 

Warm regards,

Brian Jenkins