With multiple close elections now certified and in the rearview for Wasatch County, election officials can start looking ahead.
With Heber City and multiple towns voting and a county-wide sales tax on the ballots, races came down to the wire this month in Wasatch County.
“As far as my side of things, I think it went well,” said Joey Granger, Wasatch County Clerk Auditor, on the first election she's overseen. “I have a pretty veteran staff, and running a municipal election is one of the easier ones for them, so it was a good time for me to get my feet wet.”
As is normal in an election, some ballots were returned by mail. Granger originally estimated there were about 2,500 of those, or more than 10% of registered voters. A state election official said that would be an “anomaly” in a county the size of Wasatch. However, Granger later counted about 1,700, a more typical number.
Granger said the county can take steps to try to decrease that rate of undelivered ballots with voter outreach, but ultimately, it’s up to the voter to stay current on their registration status.
“Most of them are returned because of forwarding addresses. The post office will not forward a ballot. Registered voters need to be on top of their information and make sure that they’re updating that with us or with the state before election time.”
She said of the ballots she counted, the majority didn’t deliver because of outdated addresses. A small share were also printed with isolated issues like typos. About 40 people fixed their registration issues at the county building after not receiving their ballots in October and still voted.
To prevent issues, anyone in Utah can check their registration status online. A state website at web address vote.utah.gov will show if a voter is considered active and their listed address.
The clerk’s office is also open to visitors in the Wasatch County Administration Building at 25 North Main Street in Heber City.
For final results and more on elections in Wasatch County, visit kpcw.org.