As primary election results were handed down Tuesday night, one clear winner in Salt Lake County was voter turnout thanks to a vote-by-mail campaign. “This is just unprecedented,” Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said Tuesday. “What it says is the vote-by-mail process absolutely worked in increasing voter turnout.” The county recorded a 32 percent voter turnout across all cities, which doubles numbers seen in previous primary elections and even beats the 26 percent showing in the November 2013 municipal election, Swensen said.
Only 472 ballots that came in just under the wire had yet to be counted when Swensen turned off the lights before 10 p.m. in the county clerk’s election office, a surprisingly early hour for election night. Those votes, along with any mail-in ballots arriving in the next few days with the appropriate postmark, will be counted in the final election canvass.
“It’s been smoother on our end; it’s been smoother on (voters’) end. We’ve just had a great response,” Swensen said.
In addition to the highly publicized Salt Lake City mayoral race and City Council runoff, the mail-in campaign was used as voters narrowed the field in South Jordan, West Jordan, South Salt Lake, Midvale, Herriman, Holladay.
Full Article: Vote-by-mail is a winner in primary election | Deseret News.