Utah

Utah: The end of voting by mail? Lawmakers advance two controversial election reform bills. | Emily Anderson Stern/The Salt Lake Tribune

Two controversial election reform bills crammed into one committee hearing — one that would effectively end the universal option to vote by mail in Utah and another removing the state from an organization meant to enable voter roll cleanup — passed Tuesday amid concerns from local elections officials and voting rights groups. The most consequential of the bills, HB300 from Rep. Jefferson Burton, R-Salem, would require that ballots mailed to voters be returned in person unless voters apply in person ahead of the election to submit their vote through the mail. Voting rights groups warn that if the bill becomes law, it would put in place significant hurdles for Utahns to participate in elections — especially for those who are low-income or who have disabilities. Read Article

Utah: Iron County certifies 2024 primary election results despite controversy over ballot postmarks | Bryan Schott/Salt Lake Tribune

After 24 hours of handwringing and investigating if hundreds of Utahns’ mail-in ballots with late postmarks could be counted, the Iron County Commission voted 2-1 on Tuesday to officially certify their 2024 primary election results. On Monday, Republican Commissioner Paul Cozzens disrupted the typically routine vote to certify the election results by refusing to approve the final count. He cited the rejection of approximately 400 ballots postmarked after the June 24 deadline. Mailed ballots were sent to Las Vegas for processing, and many mailed before the deadline were not postmarked until the following day, rendering them invalid, county officials said. The commission postponed the certification vote for a day to explore whether the law provided any flexibility that would allow them to include those ballots in the final count. There was none to be found. Commission members and other county officials said they spent the final day to certify their ballots by conferring with the state elections office and legislative leaders, who told them that, under current Utah law, there was no way to include the late ballots. Read Article

A former Utah county clerk is accused of shredding and mishandling 2020 and 2022 ballots | Mead Gruver/Associated Press

Former Juab County Clerk/Auditor Alaina Lofgran in Utah is facing charges for allegedly mishandling and shredding ballots from both the 2020 and 2022 elections, involving approximately 5,000 voters. It is alleged that she violated the law by allowing ballots to be shredded after the 2022 election when they should have been preserved for at least 22 months for potential recounts. Additionally, Lofgran is accused of improperly storing 2020 election ballots in an accessible basement storage room, contrary to state law which mandates secure storage. The charges include three felonies and other counts related to the neglect of duty, destruction of ballots, and misconduct. The allegations do not imply a political motive, but rather a violation of election law. Read Article

Utah: Elections audits and restrictions for changing parties. Here’s how voting will change. | Bryan Schott/The Salt Lake Tribune

Utah lawmakers introduced 36 bills dealing with elections during the 2023 legislative session, passing 13. Additionally, there were seven proposed amendments to the Utah Constitution, with three that will make it to the 2024 ballot. Most of the election-related bills approved by lawmakers are administrative. For example, HB37 from Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, standardizes signature verification procedures for ballots and how to contact voters when a problem with their signature needs rectifying. Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, pushed SB63, which changes the conditions under which political parties can replace candidates on the ballot. Previously, candidates could only be replaced if they died, were disqualified or resigned due to a physical or mental disability. The change was prompted by the controversy surrounding former Rep. Joel Ferry remaining on the ballot after he resigned from the Legislature and was appointed to head up the Utah Department of Natural Resources.

Full Article: Utah lawmakers passed more than a dozen elections laws. Here’s how voting will change.

Utah lawmakers adopt election reforms suggested by recent audit | Bridger Beal-Cvetko/Deseret News

The Utah Legislature took recommendations from a recent election audit to heart last week, passing a bill to implement several suggestions to improve election security and transparency. Although a legislative audit of Utah’s election system found no instances of widespread voter fraud, it noted small discrepancies in the number of ballots cast and the number of votes recorded in some counties. As a result, the auditors recommended the state adopt a public reconciliation of ballots, which is one of the things HB448 would accomplish.

Full Article: What Utah election reforms were suggested by recent audit? – Deseret News

Utah legislature considers requiring performance audit | Katie McKellar/Deseret News

It’s not an Arizona-style, so-called “forensic” audit that some far right Republicans were calling for in 2021, but Utah lawmakers are a step closer to requiring a “comprehensive performance” audit of Utah’s elections every other year. The Utah House on Friday voted unanimously to approve HB269, a bill that would require the Office of the Legislative Auditor General to conduct a biennial audit of elections in even-numbered years. The bill now goes to the Senate for consideration. “We have a pretty good system here in Utah,” the bill’s sponsor, House Majority Leader Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said, noting the last legislative audit conducted of the 2022 election showed just that. In that audit, legislative auditors found no evidence of fraud and only small discrepancies in the number of ballots cast and the number of votes counted in some counties. “But there’s always room for improvement,” he added, “and it’s always important that we keep our eye on the ball and strive for perfection.”

Full Article: Election audit: Utah legislature considers requiring performance audit – Deseret News

Utah Lawmakers want to audit elections, but not to examine whether the results are accurate | Bryan Schott/The Salt Lake Tribune

The House Government Operations Committee unanimously approved HB269 on Tuesday afternoon, which mandates a performance audit of Utah’s elections in even-numbered years. Legislative auditors are tasked to review almost every aspect of the primary and general elections, from candidate selection to counting ballots. The bill from House Majority Leader Rep. Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, springboards from a year-long probe of Utah’s elections instigated by Schultz in late 2021. He explained he was motivated not by unfounded fraud claims but by a desire to build confidence in Utah’s elections. … Absent from the bill is a mechanism for verifying the accuracy of election results. State law requires county clerks to conduct a post-election audit to determine whether vote-counting machines are operating correctly. Legislative auditors recommended a pilot program to audit a certain percentage of ballots after the election to help ensure the results are accurate.

Full Article: Lawmakers want to audit Utah’s elections, but not to examine whether the results are accurate

Utah: No evidence of fraud in midterm elections, but auditors say there‘s room to improve elections systems | Bryan Schott/Salt Lake Tribune

A deep dive into Utah’s vote-by-mail system found no evidence of fraud, widespread errors or systematic problems during the 2022 midterm elections. Additionally, legislative auditors found that the safeguards already in place are sufficient to thwart any attempts to undermine election integrity. Still, independent investigators pointed out several areas that are in need of improvement. Legislative leaders ordered the audit last December in the wake of Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread fraud following his 2020 election loss. Utah House Majority Leader Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, argued the look would dispel any doubts about Utah’s voting system. Auditors observed the 2022 primary election in all 29 of Utah’s counties. They found that Utah’s decentralized system, where individual counties oversee elections, creates a firewall that makes it extremely difficult to compromise a statewide or national election. The final report also refuted one of the more outlandish conspiracy theories surrounding elections. Auditors examined election equipment in several counties and found no evidence that they are connected to the internet.

Full Article: Election audit: No fraud in Utah’s midterm, but room for improvement

Utah: Judge tosses lawsuit from election conspiracy duo seeking 2020 voting data | Bryan Schott/Salt Lake Tribune

A judge tossed a lawsuit from a pair of Utah election deniers seeking detailed voting data from the 2020 election. Jen Orten and Sophie Anderson, known online as “The Two Red Pills,” filed suit against Utah, Juab and Millard counties, seeking voting machine data from the 2020 elections. In their lawsuit, Orten and Anderson asked for the “cast vote record” in those counties from the 2020 election, which is a record of when ballots from the election were counted by machine and logged into the system. The duo claimed since Utah law does not explicitly protect those records, they should be made available. Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office filed a motion to dismiss in the suit, claiming Utah’s public records laws don’t apply because the data is an “election record,” which is exempted from GRAMA (the Government Records and Management Act). Utah law says all election materials must be sealed for 22 months after the results are certified and destroyed. Additionally, her office was skeptical about why the two were asking for the data. “Plaintiffs effectively want to contest the 2020 and 2021 elections results and thereby cast doubt on county and state administration of elections,” Henderson’s motion reads.

Full Article: Judge tosses lawsuit from Utah election conspiracy duo seeking 2020 voting data

Utah ballot records lawsuit tossed | Matt Ward/Millard County Chronicle Progress

A Fourth District Court judge dismissed a civil lawsuit last week filed by two “moms” seeking to make public normally secure voting records as part of a wide-ranging effort to prove various election fraud claims. Jennifer Orten, of Draper, and Sophie Anderson, of Salt Lake City, brought the lawsuit after multiple records requests across various Utah counties were denied, including here in Millard County. The women’s efforts are best described as Utah’s version of the “big lie”—a notion spread by ultra-right radicals arguing that widespread fraud affected the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Not a thimble’s worth of solid evidence has emerged in 22 months since the 2020 election to support such claims, despite dozens of lawsuits and ballot audits across multiple states. Judge Derek Pullan pulled the plug on the women’s lawsuit—they sued Utah, Juab and Millard counties in March—after hearing arguments during a motion to dismiss hearing Wednesday. The hearing was spurred by Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson’s office, which filed a motion to dismiss in May. The lieutenant governor is the state’s top election officer.

Full Article: Ballot records lawsuit tossed – Millard County Chronicle Progress

Utah bill to end default mail-in voting fails in raucous hearing | Bridger Beal-Cvetko/Deseret News

A bill that would have returned Utah to in-person voting by default failed to advance from committee on Wednesday after opponents argued that it could disenfranchise voters and had few discernible security benefits. HB371, sponsored by Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, was heard in the House Government Operations Committee before an at times rambunctious crowd of supporters who filled five separate overflow rooms. Committee vice chairman Rep. Norm Thurston, R-Provo, had to repeatedly remind them to refrain from outbursts. Lyman said his bill was a necessary step to protect Utah elections from fraud and reinstate voter faith in elections. From a security standpoint, “our elections are pretty wide open,” he said — a claim that lacks evidence and Utah election officials contest. Although the bill would require voters to specifically request an absentee ballot be mailed to them, Lyman said the key provision in the bill was one that would require an independent audit after each election. He falsely claimed that precincts in Salt Lake and San Juan counties saw voter turnout as high as 200-300% in recent years and said that matching voter rolls to mail-in ballots “becomes really problematic.” “In essence, what we’re doing … is we’re blanketing communities with ballots assuming that the people that we’re sending them to are legitimate on the voter rolls, whether they requested it or not,” he said.

Full Article: It’s time to ‘get down to what’s real’: Utah bill to end default mail-in voting fails in raucous hearing | KSL.com

Utah House committee rejects baseless claims of election fraud; soundly defeats bill to end universal vote by mail | Bryan Schott/Salt Lake Tribune

The “stop the steal” conspiracy theory ran into reality as a bill to end Utah’s universal mail-in balloting went down in flames during a House committee meeting on Wednesday evening. Hundreds of Utahns who championed former President Donald Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 election was fraudulent packed into several rooms at the Capitol in support of HB371 from Rep. Phil Lyman. They left disappointed as the committee voted 7-3 to kill Lyman’s bill. Lyman’s massive bill, more than 2,000 lines, was a radical overhaul of Utah’s elections and contained several ideas that have popped up in the wake of Trump’s 2020 loss. Utah’s universal mail-in balloting would be replaced with same-day, in-person voting counted by hand. Most absentee balloting would be eliminated except under certain circumstances. Registering to vote would be more difficult. There is also a provision for an independent audit of the election results. Lyman said he was prompted to push for the election overhaul because people don’t trust election results. “Every single vote should count,” Lyman said. “In Utah, we have a crisis of confidence in our elections.” Lyman kept returning to his belief that an outside audit is crucial to restoring the lost election confidence. Legislative leaders authorized an audit of the state’s election systems in December, which removed some of the urgency behind Lyman’s push. Much of the rationale behind arguments for overhauling Utah’s elections was flimsy and relied on anecdotes.

Full Article: Utah House committee rejects baseless claims of election fraud; soundly defeats bill to end universal vote by mail

Utah Lt. Gov. calls election integrity claims ‘destructive’ | Lindsay Whitehurst/Associated Press

The leader who oversees Utah elections said Wednesday that new efforts questioning the integrity of the state’s voting system are “destructive” and “very concerning.” The comments from Republican Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson come after a panel of majority-GOP lawmakers approved an audit into the election system. There are also separate efforts to get a forensic audit on the ballot and her office has gotten a report about people knocking on doors asking residents about their votes. Former President Donald Trump handily won the state in 2020. “From all of the things that I have seen, the endgame here is to fundamentally destroy the voting system we have here in the state of Utah,” she told The Associated Press. “Where there are challenges and problems, let’s work together to solve them and overcome them. But let’s not deliberately spread lies, falsehoods, misinformation and do it in a way that ensures that certain people don’t have access to the ballot. My question to those elected officials is, why are you afraid to let people vote?” The questions in conservative Utah echo those in states like Arizona, where an outside firm was hired to conduct a review after Trump falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen. That review, though described by experts described as riddled with errors, bias and flawed methodology, confirmed Democrat Joe Biden’s win in the state. In October, some 200 people rallied at the Capitol building and packed a legislative meeting room calling for a similar review in Utah. The audit approved Tuesday in Utah, by contrast, will be carried out by nonpartisan legislative auditors.

Full Article: Utah Lt. Gov. calls election integrity claims ‘destructive’ | AP News

Editorial: No proof? No problem. The right wing is trying to dismantle Utah’s top-in-the-U. S. election system | Robert Gehrke/Salt Lake Tribune

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Rep. Steve Christiansen’s conspiracy peddling presentation to his fellow legislators Wednesday was that he did the entire thing as a space alien. Of course, I can’t PROVE he’s an extraterrestrial from outer space. But a lot of questions have been raised and some people believe so. I can’t really prove how many people believe it. There’s this poll, but you can’t see it, and it is true that this particular pollster’s reputation is abysmal. That is the standard of proof that Christiansen relies on when making his unfounded claims that Utah’s election was rife with fraud and needs a full forensic audit. “I believe there was fraud in the 2020 election. I can’t prove it, which is why we need to have an audit,” he said Wednesday. Christiansen’s tales are beyond fiction. They’re beyond fantasies. They are outright lies.

Full Article: No proof? No problem. The right wing is trying to dismantle Utah’s top-in-the-U. S. election system, Robert Gehrke writes

Utah legislators attack vote by mail, want statewide audit and return to paper ballots | Mark Shenefelt/Standard-Examiner

Two legislators are leading an effort to virtually eliminate vote by mail and mandate an independent audit of the 2020 Utah election, while state and county officials are pushing back and instead proposing tweaks to the existing system. Republican Reps. Steve Christiansen of West Jordan and Phil Lyman of Blanding outlined for the Legislature’s Judiciary…

Utah Senator Mike Lee stands up for the right of states to suppress minority voting rights | Raymond A. Hult/The Salt Lake Tribune

With the House having recently passed an historic election reform bill (HR1), Utah Sen. Mike Lee’s immediate response was “Everything about this bill is rotten to the core. It was written and held by the devil himself.” More recently, after Georgia Republican legislators passed a restrictive voter election law that Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola criticized as a blatantly suppressing the minority vote, Lee ranted, “I find that kind of intrusion unseemly and inappropriate. It’s wildly partisan what they’re doing. I think they should both issue an apology to the voters of Georgia.” Reviewing some of the provisions of the Georgia bill, I wondered what he found so unseemly, inappropriate and requiring an apology. It limits the number of drop boxes in every county as well as the hours they can be open. It prohibits automatically sending by-mail ballot applications to registered voters and shortens the period such requests can be made. It tightens ID requirement for casting an absentee ballot. It prohibits anyone from giving food or drink to voters waiting in line at a polling place. Everything contrary to voting in Utah and obviously intended to make it harder for minorities to cast their votes. Reviewing the main elements of HR1, I wanted to see exactly what may have caused that visceral rejection by Lee. Historically, what many consider to be one of the most profoundly significant legislative achievements in American history, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 1965. It enforced voting rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, most significantly attempting to ensure the right to vote by Black Americans.

Source: Mike Lee stands up for the right of states to suppress minority voting rights.

What Utah officials told Pennsylvania about holding elections by mail | Dennis Romboy/Deseret News

Pennsylvania found itself at the center of controversy during the 2020 election. An onslaught of mail-in ballots prompted by a new law being tested for the first time amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic overwhelmed the state’s election officials, who were prohibited from counting the ballots before Election Day. President Donald Trump took direct aim at the Keystone State as his lead eroded and Joe Biden ultimately emerged as the winner by 81,000 votes, or about 1%. Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud led to lawsuits that Pennsylvania courts and the U.S. Supreme Court rejected. As a result, the Pennsylvania Senate created the bipartisan Special Committee on Election Integrity and Reform. The nine-member panel is anticipated to make recommendations to lawmakers on how to improve the state’s election process. “I don’t think it’s any secret that the issues of the 2020 election have dominated the headlines, and this committee was formed to examine how we can do better,” said Pennsylvania state Sen. Wayne Langerholc Jr., a Republican who heads the committee.

Full Article: What Utah officials told Pennsylvania about holding elections by mail – Deseret News

Utah: Elections director outlines voting changes, prepares for primary | Sahalie Donaldson/Deseret News

With laws locked in place altering voting practices to account for COVID-19, Utah’s upcoming June 30 primary election will be unlike any that has preceded it. Justin Lee, the state’s director of elections, swiftly walked through the changes with Utah lawmakers Tuesday afternoon during a meeting of the Legislature’s Government Operations Interim Committee. Discussion on the changes was brief, and Lee urged lawmakers and their constituents to remember that patience, while difficult, is going to be key working forward. “Everyone is going to need to be very patient with election results,” Lee said. “They are going to be a little bit slower, they are going to be a little bit longer, and in close races as we’ve seen in the past, we may not have final results or even definitive breaks between candidates for a couple of weeks after Election Day.” The delay is connected to a couple of changes largely implemented through laws passed during the April special session in HB3006.