SALT LAKE CITY -- In Utah House District 24 Libertarian Eric Hamilton and another non-incumbent party candidate face incumbent Democrat Utah House Minority Leader Ralph Becker. There is no Republican candidate in the race.

In an Associated Press article profiling Libertarian Hamilton and the incumbent, Utah Republican Party Executive Director Jeff Hartley says “My guess is most Republicans would side with a Libertarian over Ralph Becker – although they might have a hard time swallowing the legalization of polygamy and marijuana.”

The article also notes that although the incumbent Democrat "courts Republican voters, Hartley said many would probably prefer Hamilton. That’s because libertarians favor reduced taxes and limited government, he said."

Libertarian Party of Utah Chairman Rob Latham says there are at least two takeaway lessons from this article.

"First, the lack of a Republican challenger in the race illustrates the uncompetitive and unrepresentative nature of the winner-take-all, single member district electoral system the incumbent political parties use to cheat Utah voters out of fair elections," says Latham.

According to the State Elections Office, of 75 state house races, Republicans aren't contesting two seats (districts 24 and 69) and Democrats aren't contesting 19 seats (districts 2, 7, 13, 34, 39, 41, 50, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67, 70 and 73). And Republicans aren't contesting one (and possibly two) state senate races (districts 5 and 18) in Utah this year.

"Second," adds Latham, "because elected Republicans can't or won't reduce taxes and government in Utah, Republican voters who favor reduced taxes and limited government should vote Libertarian."

Mr. Hartley isn't the first or only Republican to recognize Libertarians as the genuine champions of smaller government, fewer taxes, and more freedom.

Earlier this year, Republican Utah House District 27 Representative John Dougall asked on his blog what former U.S. president Ronald Reagan -- who once said "I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism" -- would think about the "out of control spending," "entitlement culture," and "bloated bureaucracies" that characterize modern conservatism.

Libertarians favor decentralizing the two-party system by adopting the multi-party electoral systems used in most of the world's democracies. Those systems employ multi-member districts and proportional representation to elect a broader cross-section of the community to legislative bodies, from school board to the state legislature, says Latham.

Hundreds of Libertarians hold elected office across across the United States, the newest being Sara Chambers, who was elected to the City of Juneau, Alaska's assembly earlier this month.