Chris Noll, chair of the Salt Lake County Republican Party, told the Politicat podcast that more than a third of Utah voters have their public records marked “private,” and he urged narrower privacy exemptions so the party can communicate with members and candidates. He also described a bill he introduced — now in committee — that would treat petition signatures as public records, and defended the caucus-convention system and recent county-level delegate reallocation that he said better equalizes representation across Salt Lake County.

Why it matters: Noll said the scale of withheld voter contact data has practical effects for party organization and candidate recruitment in Salt Lake County, which he described as the state’s political battleground. He framed the issue as one of transparency for political participation and contrasted party needs with commercial data brokers that already sell detailed profiles.

Noll said the voter-data problem impedes routine outreach. "The only thing we get is a name and an address. And then if they're withheld, we just get an address," he said, arguing the party lacks phone numbers and emails needed to notify members about caucuses and conventions. He described the current share of private records as far larger than the number of people with demonstrable safety reasons to hide their information, saying, "It should maybe be, you know, a point 1%. I mean, it should be a very small number."

On legislation, Noll summarized a bill he sponsored that would classify petition signatures as public records. He told the program, "My bill simply said, if you're gonna sign a petition, then that's a public record." He said the measure "got put down in committee," and he acknowledged exceptions and privacy concerns raised for people in vulnerable situations, judges, police or military members.

Noll also criticized how commercial signature-gathering firms handle data. He said paid firms obtain signers' information and then offer it for sale: "They offer it to me for a price. Yeah. As chair, I get offers all the time. We have this data." He contrasted that market practice with the party’s inability to access similar information for its own membership lists.

On party structure, Noll defended Utah’s caucus-convention system as a form of grassroots representation and described a county effort in November 2023 to rebalance delegate allocation. Using internal mapping, he said his office found a majority of delegates concentrated in the northern part of Salt Lake County and that the county party implemented changes to allocate delegates to represent roughly equal numbers of Republicans across the county instead of assigning one delegate per precinct regardless of Republican population. "We made some changes in November 2023 to be able to reallocate the delegates more equally," he said, adding the change "solved it."

Noll spoke at length about party unity and the challenge of "party switchers" — people he said join the Republican party to influence outcomes rather than support its principles. He proposed measures to "de-incentivize" such behavior, including ideas that would make certain donations or disclosures less attractive to people who do not share party principles. He urged party leaders and legislators to partner: "Look at the party as a partner. There are people in the party who want to help... Listen to them, pay attention to them, talk to them." The podcast host echoed that partnership theme throughout the interview.

Noll also described his professional background in information-technology and data protection and urged stronger laws requiring companies to disclose what consumer data they collect and why. "I absolutely believe that we need laws that force them to explain what data they have and why and make that public," he said.

The interview covered additional topics including Noll's upcoming term limit at the county chair level, examples from recent conventions and races, and his view that delegates typically deliberate on principles rather than promises. He said the county used a post-convention flyer summarizing results to amplify delegate winners and credited state party staff for assistance.

What was not decided: Noll said the petition-transparency bill was put down in committee; he did not report passage or a committee vote tally. He did not provide statutory citations for the voter-ID or petition-record proposals during the interview. He described county party rule changes as implemented at the local party level in November 2023 rather than through state law.

Looking ahead: Noll said he will finish his final year as county chair and emphasized outreach to increase participation at the precinct and delegate levels. He urged both party members and legislators to allow space for officials and neighbors to change course when warranted and to work with local party volunteers on issue groups and legislative feedback.