Wasatch County voters will have to wait in suspense for election results until they're made official.
The canvassing process is set to take place Monday, November 15. That’s when the county clerk adds all outstanding ballots to the official tabulation. Until then, there’ll be no updates to the preliminary tallies released Tuesday.
Wasatch County Clerk Joey Granger says that’s because Heber City ballots require additional steps due to the new ranked choice voting method.
“We could potentially run 10 ballots a day and update totals, which is a little bit cumbersome. I could do it if it was a regular race, but really to re-run the ranked choice tabulator everyday would be too much. I think it makes more sense to wait until we have the final votes all accounted for,” she says.
On Wednesday, the day when ballots were most likely to arrive, Granger says three new ones came in.
That wouldn’t be enough to help sway races like for Heber City Council or mayor. But with 44 uncounted provisional ballots, the fate of the recreation, arts and parks tax in Wasatch County is still up in the air.
Out of over 7,500 total votes, only 10 more people voted against the RAP Tax than those in favor.
Provisional ballots require the clerk’s office to verify a voter’s proof of residence along with voter eligibility.
“I can’t just run [ballots] for that one race when we have the other ones waiting. If we wait for one we wait for all of them, so we can just do it all at once,” the clerk says.
If unchallenged, the elections will be certified after canvassing. According to Utah law, a candidate may challenge an outcome if the margin is 0.25% or less.
For full details on elections in Wasatch County, visit kpcw.org.