The claim
The mayor's pamphlet argument was filed late
“Your argument should have been excluded from the packet as it was a day late.”
Seen: Referendum organizing post, Eagle Mountain Facebook group, October 2026. First seen October 7, 2026.
The record contradicts it.
The mayor's argument is stamped received on September 8, the fifteenth day after the referendum application was filed. State law gives the sponsors and the city fifteen days each, so it arrived on the last day allowed, not after it. The argument the city's pamphlet marks late is the sponsors' own.
The numbers
What’s true
It came in at the last possible moment. September 8 was the final day of the window, and the only record of when it arrived is the city's own received stamp.
Where it goes wrong
It was not late. Utah Code § 20A-7-401.5(1)(a) lets the sponsors, and separately the city, submit a written argument “within 15 calendar days after the day on which” the application is filed. The application was stamped received on Monday, August 24, so the fifteenth day was Tuesday, September 8: the date on the stamp on the mayor's argument. Counting from August 22, the day the sponsors signed and notarized the application, would put the deadline on September 6, but the statute runs the clock from filing, not signing.
More detail
The same fifteen days applied to the sponsors. The pamphlet lists their argument as “not timely submitted” and leaves it out, which the statute requires of an argument that misses the deadline (§ 20A-7-401.5(2)(d)). Either side could then send a revised version of an argument it had already submitted on time, within twenty days of filing (§ 20A-7-401.5(1)(d) and (e)).
The statute has arguments submitted electronically, and the email the mayor's argument came in with is not published. If a record shows it arriving after September 8, this card is wrong and will say so.
Where this comes from
Every finding here is drawn from an open-meeting recording or a published document. Check it yourself.
Read more on this site
More checks on how it was decided
- Unsupported by the recordThe tax was rushed through in secret
- Accurate, but incompleteSigning the petition repeals the tax
- Accurate, but incompleteThe city published sponsors' home addresses
- Not settledThe vote was pushed to August to keep turnout low
Checked October 7, 2026. Nothing goes on the fact-check list unless an open-meeting recording or a published document can settle it: the rules. Spot a mistake? civicrollcall@gmail.com