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