It’s no secret that Utah County faced some issues during its first foray into an all vote-by-mail election during the August primary, but the county is taking steps to make sure the general election goes more smoothly. The issues started when 60,000 ballots were sent to unaffiliated voters in the county, mistakenly containing the option to vote in the Republican primary for the 3rd Congressional District Race. Then final results were drawn out, with the fourth and final batch of election results being released more than a week after the primary election on Aug. 15.
Though some races had obvious winners after the first two rounds were released, others were not so clear cut. The Provo mayoral race saw Sherrie Hall Everett come out of third place to snag the second place spot to advance to the general. Provo’s at-large council seat ended up with second and third place close enough to call for a recount. But during that recount, yet another issue was uncovered — 150 ballots that had somehow been misplaced and never counted.
Bryan Thompson, Utah County Clerk/Auditor, is well aware of these issues and is working to make sure they are taken care of or lessened during November’s general election.
For starters, the county is hoping to speed up the process by coordinating with the post office to get ballots to the county in a timely manner. So, instead of waiting for ballots to be delivered like it did during the primary, Utah County will actually coordinate with the post office to have county employees bring the ballots straight to election workers.
Full Article: Utah County makes changes to avoid vote-by-mail glitches faced in primary | Local Elections | heraldextra.com.