Latest / The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of / Robert Gehrke from February 12th, 2026

Transcript

Robert Gehrke from February 12th, 2026 · The Radio From Hell Show - Best Of

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I declares, go up, that's not the Gurky theme. Good heavens,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: we can't get started, Bob and tell your theme is played.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: So hang on tonight.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: Now I'm waiting. I'm waiting for my queue. Let's try again.
• 0:09
  Speaker 3: Here we go. Who is that journalist, the pickle guy
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Turky Turky.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Radio from hew On X ninety six.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Well, Bob, you sound sick.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, excuse me. In addition to being a Petri
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: dish for bad ideas, the capital talk and the Petri
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: dish for disease. So yeah, I think I've caught something.
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: And uh yeah, so I'm kind of trying to lay
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: low a little bit today. Thanks for letting me call you, Robert.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Robert Gurky of course with the Salt Lake Tribune sltrib
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: dot com, a columnist dan reporter. So things are going
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: going along up there on Capitol Hill. The one thing
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: that just keeps bothering me, and it keeps coming up
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: is we've we've demonstrated that that voting by mail here
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: in Utah has been safe. There's been no abuse of it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: It's helped the numbers of people voting go up and
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: up and up, and we found like zero amount of fraud.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: They've audited, they've examined, and yet and yet the legislators
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: want to try to fix something that, by all accounts
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: is not even close to broken.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: What the hell, Well, we went Utah was kind of
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: a pioneer in voting by mail, and when we went
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: to voting by mail, our voter turnout shot way up.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: But I think you know, there's there was an audit
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: that was done like probably two years ago now that
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: found that there were in two people who were dead,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Hoover cast ballots to three people who three people who
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: appear to have voted twice in the course of three
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: three elections. So you were talking million and a half
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: ballots I think it was that had been cast in
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: those five instances. The Lieutenant governor did an audit of
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: the voter rolls recently and found that there was one
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: person who was perhaps undocumented, who was registered and had
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: not voted. I shouldn't say it document, not a citizen.
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: They could have been like a legal permanent resident, etc.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: But who had who was registered on the rolls and
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: hadn't voted. So this is what they're trying to stump
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: out with by doing going to this instead of vote
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: by mail it's sort of or instead of a mail
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: in ballot, it's sort of a mail out ballot. So
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: they'll still mail you your ballot and you can sit
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: down at your table and fill it out, but then
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: you've got to take it in to a voting location
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: that's going to have to be staffed, right, and so
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: the hours are going to be more limited than just
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: dropping it in the mailbox and show them your ID
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: to confirm and verify that you are who you say
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: you are. This is something that the House proposed last
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: year and the Senate didn't go along with it. This year,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: the Senate is, you know, kind of keeping its powder dry.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: I guess they're not committing one way or another, but
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: the House is pretty committed to it, especially House Speaker
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Mike Schultz, who says, even though you know there's this
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: data from the audits that shows that it's that voting
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: fraud is rare, he's convinced that, you know, he hears
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: from constituents that you know, there's somebody signed their ballace.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: You know, these are people who are spending too much
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: time on the internet. Is the problem is anywhere in
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: this thing getting IDs for free? No, Because if that's
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: that's a poll tax, well right.
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: Arguably yes, And I think I think in addition to that,
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: you have the issues with rural Utah, you know, I mean,
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: you can't set up polling places and make them as
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: convenient as mailboxes in rural Utah with this will cost
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: that a huge expense. This will cost millions of dollars.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: They've said ten million dollars. That's what the county clerk
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: said it all.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: None of the county clerks want this either, and they
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: like it will cost ten million dollars to put this
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: into effect.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, and so, And that's ten million dollars that
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: as of right now at least is not coming from
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: the legislature. Ten million dollars that county taxpayers are going
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: to end up having a pay. I think there's still
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: a lot of work or negotiation or you know, whatever
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: you want to call it to be done on this,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: because I think the Senate's still going to have a
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: problem with it, and you know, we're watching and waiting
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: to see how it goes.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Is anybody seriously considering this idea of having a Secretary
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: of State a new position which oversees elections. Again, I
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: have no idea why the lieutenant governor seems to have
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: done it fine. Spencer Cox when he was lieutenant governor
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: did it fine. I just don't I don't get it.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: I just don't know me.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: The argument is, and other states have a Secretary of
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: State who's independent, and the problem that they think that
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: they would be solved here is that when the governor's
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: on the ballot, the lieutenant governor's running the election, you
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: have the potential for a conflict of interest. In the past,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: when that's arisen like it did in twenty twenty four,
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: the lieutenant governor designates somebody to make decisions on election disputes.
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: But they, you know, the Phil Lyman crowd doesn't like
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: that either, because if the lieutenant governor's making the pick,
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: then she might be picking somebody whose favor to their position.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: So I Representative will Cox has proposed in the past
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: creating an election office that's overseen by a board rather
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: than having a lieutenant governor do it. It didn't go anywhere.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of constitutional amendments this session that are
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: being proposed, and I think there's a little bit of
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: reluctance to put too many constitutional amendments on the ballot.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: So I kind of don't think this is something that's
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: going to go anywhere, but you know, we won't know
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: for sure for another three weeks. Takes the halfway.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Point, by the way, exciting and see what was the
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: other Oh so the the the judges and the courts
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: backing the court well, and we apparently we seem to
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: think that we need more oversight of the judges more over, so.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: They yeah, they've already passed and it's in law now.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: The expansion is the Utah Supreme Court. This is seven uh.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: They the Constitutional Court has has passed the Senate, it's
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: just waiting for funding. Now. This is the three judge
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: panel that's going to hear constitutional challenges. The bill that
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: came out yesterday is yeah, it's they want to live
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: stream court proceedings, which states have tried to do with
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: some you know, moderate success, I guess or varying degrees
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: of success. The argument, again, this is coming from Speaker Schultz,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: who's kind of leading the crusade against the courts. He
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: thinks that there's the legislature live streams its meetings. He
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: thinks that there's more should need to be more transparency,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: and the court should live stream their proceedings. Now, there
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: are obviously problems in our carve outs for things like
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: if you have a victim testifying you know, livestream that,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: or a child or you know, things along those lines.
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: But again, this is going to take a lot of money.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: And you know, the courts have been asking for additional
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: resources for a long time, not in this area. They
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: aren't opposed to it, frankly, they you know, if they
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: if the legislature wants to fund this, they can work
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: it out and do it. But there are other needs
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: in the court that are kind of going unmet, you know,
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: judge positions, administrative assistant positions, clerk positions, things like that,
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: things that they say would help help the public when
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: they interact with the courts through a divorce or a case,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: you know whatever.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: They've got pending. Bob, stop, Bob stopped talking. Stop stop,
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: like you're getting worse and worse's I feel so bad
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: for you.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: Oh but I was going to ask him about the
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: ability to take my gun to the jazz games.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, sorry, Bill, cover your ears.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: For well, I just don't just sound I just want
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: you to get better, that's.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: All I want to get better too. Thank you. The
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: Tannis Perucci proposed this bill that would let you take
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: your like let you take your gun to a jazz game,
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: if you have a concealed weapons permit for a Mammoth game,
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: or any entity that's taken public money. That bill has
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: been amended right now, and so the way the new
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: version would say that if these places take public money,
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: they have to provide gunlockers for people that want to
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: bring their guns to the arena and then check them.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: And maybe you can check your coat too. I don't know,
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: but it's it's something that you know, maybe can is
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: at least a little bit more workable. Obviously, they're Smith
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Entertainment Group. The people that run the Jazz and the
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: Mammoth were kind of alarmed that this bill dropped where
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: it was because the NBA and NHL both have policies
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: that their arenas are supposed to be done free, and
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: so so it was going to create a real problem
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: for him. The other thing I was going to mention,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: we talked about renaming Harvey Milk Boulevard Charlie kirk Boulevard.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: I talked to the I talked to the House Rules
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: chair this week. He said he thinks that bill's not
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: going to go anywhere in this session.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Good.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: He's sort of the guy who has to say on
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: which which bills go to committee, and he doesn't like it.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: He thinks they're trying to name too many roads and
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: he wants to kind of tap tap the brakes on
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: that a little bit.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: All Right, good, all right, thank you, bob, getting just
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: take care of yourself, okay, all right, I'm.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: Gonna go get some tea. Thank you, guys.
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: All right, you talk to you later. Sounded like he was,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: and it just got worse and worse and along there. Yeah,