Utah County canvassers approve primary canvass as staff investigate missing mail ballots in Eagle Mountain

The Utah County Board of County Canvassers approved the canvass of the June 23, 2026 primary election at a July 2 meeting and heard staff describe an ongoing investigation into concentrated mail-ballot non-deliveries in parts of Eagle Mountain.

Elections staff told the board they sent an email to about 12,000 voters in the affected area asking whether they had received their ballots and received roughly 260 responses saying they had not. "We had about two dozen people contact our office saying that they did not receive a ballot," the staff member said, adding that responses clustered in Eagle Mountain Precincts 7 and 10.

Why it matters: the canvass formally certifies the county's primary results; simultaneous unresolved delivery issues in a localized area prompted board members to request further investigation by staff and the U.S. Postal Service.

Staff said overall turnout in the primary matched statewide patterns at about 27 percent and that the county improved its ballot-cure rate to over 50 percent after targeted outreach and a verification change that added four digits to the ballot process. "We actually ended up with more cures because we introduced the 4 digits on the ballot," the staff member said, calling the improvement modest but meaningful.

On the missing-ballot reports, staff said the print vendor (Runbeck) shows time stamps confirming ballots were printed and routed to Salt Lake, but that the county’s tracking visibility ends at the Salt Lake distribution center. "It's from Salt Lake forward that we don't have the tracking," staff said, and the county is working with the Postal Service to determine what happened between the Salt Lake main postal center and local delivery points.

Staff described their outreach steps: after receiving clustered complaints they queried the local voters who had not returned ballots and asked for a simple yes/no on receipt; they also requested copies of "Informed Delivery" emails from several voters that showed postal confirmation images even though the ballot did not arrive.

Board members asked whether any ballots were returned as undeliverable and whether nearby vote centers were available to residents who did not receive ballots. Staff said some returned mail exists but that mapping of undeliverables had not yet been completed and noted vote centers in Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs were available during the election. "Although we didn't know of this issue in time," the staff member said, "that's when we started getting notifications that people were not receiving their ballots."

Staff provided counts for the neighborhoods discussed: 657 ballots were sent to Eagle Mountain Precinct 7 and 467 to Precinct 10, and about 260 voters in that outreach sample said they did not receive a ballot. Staff emphasized that, based on current information, they do not believe the pattern changed the outcome of any specific race in this election cycle.

The board then approved the canvass by voice vote. The motion to approve was made and seconded; the transcript records a voice vote of "Aye" with no roll-call tally in the record.

Next steps: staff will continue coordinating with Runbeck and the U.S. Postal Service to trace the distribution chain from Salt Lake to local delivery and will report back to the board. The board gave direction to pursue the Postal Service's investigative process and to further analyze any returned/undeliverable metrics.

The meeting closed after routine motions to approve earlier minutes and to adjourn.