Summit County Council certifies 2024 general election canvass after clerk reports 26,482 ballots and 89% turnout

At a meeting in the council chambers, the Summit County Council convened as the county canvass board and voted to certify the 2024 general election canvass after County Clerk Eve presented the official canvass summary and explained procedures used to review and, when possible, cure ballots.

Eve told the council that 26,482 ballots were counted and 526 ballots were not counted. She listed the major reasons ballots were uncounted: 350 signature mismatches, 48 unsigned ballots and 4 ballots lacking an affidavit. "We sent notices and included an affidavit that voters could sign and return," Eve said, describing mail, photographed/email copies or in-person return as accepted methods for curing. The cure window closed at 5 p.m. the day before the meeting.

The clerk also reported roughly 75 ballots were cured and ultimately counted after the county’s cure process, and described other categories of rejected or redirected ballots: 97 ballots postmarked after the deadline, a small number of duplicate receipts (instances where a voter appears to have cast two ballots), three ballots cast after a voter moved out of Summit County, one ballot cast in the wrong precinct, two ballots that belonged to Wasatch County (returned to Wasatch for inclusion in that county’s canvas) and two ballots received without envelopes that could not be identified.

Eve summarized provisional-ballot handling: 477 provisional ballots were cast, 454 were counted and 23 were not counted for reasons including prior voting, insufficient identification, unsigned or incomplete forms, or jurisdictional mismatch.

Explaining why the count took longer than in previous years, Eve said new requirements increased staff time. Among the changes she named were nightly reconciliation of ballots to the voter registration database (about two hours per night), a signature audit that must occur before signature tabs are separated from envelopes and a 1% ongoing signature audit that requires two staff members per audit sample. "All ballot processing steps now have to be on camera," Eve said, noting that camera requirements limited how the office could mobilize additional helpers and constrained available workspace.

A council member flagged undervotes as consequential in close contests, noting, for example, 1,662 undervotes in a council-seat race and saying those undervotes could have affected outcomes in tight races. The clerk and other council members discussed how overvotes and undervotes appear on paper ballots and how they are recorded and reported.

Following the clerk’s presentation and a brief period of questions and comment, Council member Tanya moved and Candace seconded a motion to certify the election results "as true, accurate and final for the general election canvass 2024." The motion passed on a voice vote. The council then moved to adjourn.

The clerk provided the official canvass packet, which the county will submit to the lieutenant governor’s office in the required format. The council thanked Eve, elections staff, poll workers and volunteers for their work during a lengthy count and high turnout.

What happens next: the certified canvass becomes the county’s official record of results and will be transmitted in the format the lieutenant governor’s office requires; investigations of possible duplicate or late-postmarked ballots were described as referrals to the sheriff where appropriate.