Editing San Juan County, Utah (section)

==Politics and government==
San Juan County has supported Republican presidents since voting for [[Wendell Willkie]] in 1940. It supported a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] for president in 1896 ([[William Jennings Bryan]]), 1916 ([[Woodrow Wilson]]), and [[1936 United States presidential election|1936]] ([[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]). Though a Republican vote currently secures elections, the area has voted less Republican than the rest of Utah in many national elections. In 2004, for example, [[George W. Bush]] won 60.02% in San Juan County versus 71.54% in the state. In 2020, Democrat [[Joe Biden]] needed 6.13% more votes to win the county from [[Donald Trump]], who secured 51.2% in the county as opposed to 58.13% in the state as a whole. The county is more competitive at the state level due to its high [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] population, which leans Democratic. Notably, the county voted for the Democratic candidates in the [[1988 Utah gubernatorial election|1988]] and [[2000 Utah gubernatorial election|2000]] gubernatorial elections, both of which Republican candidates won.

Federally mandated commissioner districts put many [[Navajo]] voters in one district. The San Juan County Board of Commissioners has been majority white for many years. In 2016, a Federal District Court decision found voting districts violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution. Before the 2016 court decision, the county used an at-large voting system to elect commissioners.<ref>{{cite news|author1=Krista Langlois|title=How a Utah county silenced Native American voters — and how Navajos are fighting back|url=https://ecf.utd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?212cv0039-312|access-date=June 20, 2016|work=US Courts|date=June 13, 2011}}</ref>

In 2018, the first-ever majority-Navajo commission was seated. Two of the three county commissioners, Willie Grayeyes and Kenneth Maryboy, are board members of Utah Diné Bikeyah, which supported the creation of Bears Ears National Monument.<ref>{{cite news|title=2018: A year of schism |publisher=Navajo Times |page=A1 |date=December 27, 2018 |author=Cindy Yurth}}</ref> In a 2019 special election, Proposition 10, which would have changed the structure of the county government to include five county commissioners, was blocked needing 153 more popular votes.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Grabar |first1=Henry |title=The Battle for San Juan County, Utah |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/08/san-juan-county-utah-native-americans-republicans-bears-ears.html |website=SLATE |date=August 25, 2020 |access-date=April 15, 2021}}</ref> The proposition, spearheaded by [[Blanding, Utah|Blanding]] Mayor Joe Lyman, was characterized by opponents as an effort to undermine the Navajo-majority county commission.<ref>{{cite news|title=San Juan County voters defeat ballot measure to study change in government|date=November 8, 2019|last=Podmore|first=Zak|work=The Salt Lake Tribune|location=Salt Lake City, Utah|url=https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/11/08/san-juan-county-voters/|access-date=November 17, 2019}}</ref> Mayor Joe Lyman characterized the proposition as a way to restore representation to Blanding, the county's largest city. He states, "I don't like how we arrived at the commissioners we have because it felt like a judicial appointment," and that "the vote is very evenly split."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Groetzinger |first1=Kate |title=County Government Fails By Close Margin |url=https://www.kuer.org/elections/2019-11-08/proposition-to-change-san-juan-county-government-fails-by-close-margin |website=KUER |date=November 9, 2019 |access-date=April 15, 2021}}</ref>

As of March 2020, efforts were underway to bring municipal water and electrical service to the 29-home Diné ([[Navajo]]) community of Westwater, which has existed for decades with neither just outside the city limits of Blanding.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/03/11/utah-ask-navajo-nation/ | title=How state and tribal leaders hope to bring water to Westwater }}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|+State elected offices
! colspan="2" style="text-align:center; vertical-align:bottom;" |Position
!District
! style="text-align:center;" |Name
! valign="bottom" |Affiliation
! style="vertical-align:bottom; text-align:center;" |First elected
|-
| style="background-color:{{party color|Republican Party (United States)}}" |&nbsp;
|[[Utah Senate|Senate]]
|27
| style="text-align:center;" |[[David Hinkins]]
| style="text-align:center;" |[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| style="text-align:center;" |2008<ref>{{Cite web|title=Senator Hinkins Utah Senate|url=https://senate.utah.gov/sen/HINKIDP/|access-date=November 16, 2021|website=senate.utah.gov}}</ref>
|-
| style="background-color:{{party color|Republican Party (United States)}}" |&nbsp;
|[[Utah House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]
|73
| style="text-align:center;" |[[Phil Lyman]]
| style="text-align:center;" |[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| style="text-align:center;" |2018<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rep. Lyman, Phil|url=https://house.utah.gov/rep/LYMANP/|access-date=November 15, 2021|website=Utah House of Representatives|language=en-US}}</ref>
|-
| style="background-color:lightgrey" |&nbsp;
|Board of Education
|14
| style="text-align:center;" |Mark Huntsman
| style="text-align:center;" |Nonpartisan
| style="text-align:center;" |2014<ref>{{Cite web|title=Mark Huntsman|url=https://www.schools.utah.gov/board/members/utah/markhuntsman|access-date=November 15, 2021|website=www.schools.utah.gov}}</ref>
|-
|}
{{PresHead|place=San Juan County, Utah|source=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=US Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=March 31, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|3,613|2,581|196|Utah}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|3,535|3,113|256|Utah}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|2,645|2,042|847|Utah}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|3,074|2,139|94|Utah}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|2,638|2,406|86|Utah}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|2,971|1,906|73|Utah}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|2,721|1,838|185|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|2,139|1,675|351|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|2,004|1,639|692|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|2,377|1,407|53|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|2,598|1,145|15|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|2,774|763|113|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|1,856|1,182|184|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|1,893|677|203|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|1,393|680|262|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1964|Republican|1,371|993|0|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|1,408|837|0|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|1,119|425|0|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|876|421|0|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1948|Republican|558|418|7|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1944|Republican|513|367|1|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1940|Republican|528|515|4|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|432|520|9|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1932|Republican|460|459|21|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1928|Republican|449|231|5|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1924|Republican|380|232|56|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1920|Republican|523|260|24|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|213|448|15|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1912|Tie|146|146|100|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1908|Republican|130|109|6|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1904|Republican|135|36|1|Utah}}
{{PresRow|1900|Republican|81|72|3|Utah}}
{{PresFoot|1896|Democratic|8|167|0|Utah}}