Board of Canvassers hears elections summary, votes to certify general election results

The Utah County Board of Canvassers voted to approve the commission chair’s certification of the recent general election after hearing a summary of ballot processing, turnout and close races, the board recorded.

Elections staff (Unidentified Speaker 4) told the board the county saw an unusually large election year driven in part by three newly created school districts and related contests, saying, "This is a great election," and that the contest pool included "70 races and 2 propositions" with about "170 candidates." Staff reported a participation rate of about 34.8% and said that changes in state law affecting ballot processing played a significant role in how the office handled ballots.

Staff described administrative changes and results: the office amended its Canvas report to correct a count of disability affidavits (noted as 66 ballots), said it increased its cure rate to about 67% by emailing, mailing and calling voters, and reported that drop box usage rose from roughly 63% to about 85% after the county stopped paying return postage. "We moved that to 85% usage of the drop box," staff said, and staff urged voters to use drop boxes or vote in person because state rules now require some ballots to be in hand on election day.

Elections staff also provided counts of ballots received after election night. Staff said 1,724 ballots (roughly 1.4% of ballots) were received too late in the general election; in the prior primary they reported 1,441 late arrivals (about 1.9%). Staff described the additional administrative work to segregate and review ballots by postmark.

For several tight school-district contests staff said uncured or late ballots could have affected outcomes under prior processing rules. Staff described Lake Mountain School District seat 4 as decided by seven votes (recount threshold five) and another Timpanogos-area race by 16 votes (recount threshold 13), and noted numbers of uncured and late ballots in those contests.

After the summary, Unidentified Speaker 2 moved to approve item 3 (authorizing the commission chair to certify the election results); Unidentified Speaker 3 seconded, and the board approved the motion by voice vote.

The board thanked elections staff for their work and then moved to public comment before adjourning.