When voters receive their ballots in the mail next month, there will only be two names as as candidates for Utah County clerk. They won’t be the only people running, though. Candace Jacobson announced Sept. 12 that she would be seeking the seat with a write-in campaign.

A longtime Election Day volunteer, Jacobson told the Daily Herald she decided to jump into the race after keeping a close eye on it for months, eventually deciding voters should have another option.

“The office of county clerk is here to serve the county. I want to go in and keep it functioning efficiently as it has in the past, especially in the recent past. I just don’t want to make huge changes. I honestly think I’m working for the people more than myself,” she said.

The Utah County Clerk’s Office, soon to be divided from the Auditor’s Office, is responsible for running elections, filing passport and marriage licenses and more.

Jacobson said she joined the race because, in her opinion, “neither choice is going to be particularly good for the county.”

The two candidates are Aaron Davidson, who earned the GOP nod at the Utah County GOP convention in April and Jake Oaks with the Independent American Party. Davidson has positioned himself consistently against universal mail-in voting and against ranked-choice voting. Oaks stated that, if elected, he would not issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the county.

Jacobson took aim at both in her campaign announcement — Oaks for how much it would cost taxpayers to go through litigation on his position against same-sex marriage licenses and Davidson for his opposition to mail-in voting, a program she calls “enormously popular and incredibly safe” for which Utah has become a national model.

“I think voters can really expect Candace be a level-headed candidate because right now the two people who are running against her are very extremist. We need someone in the clerk’s office that is level-headed,” said Katie Adams-Anderton, chair of the Utah County Democratic Party.

Jacobson will have the backing of the county Democratic Party in her campaign.

Among her campaign platform is a goal to make the clerk’s job nonpartisan in the future, noting that municipal elections frequently do not require party affiliation.

“We should not be dragging our personal political views into this particular office,” she said.

Jacobson came to that decision having been registered as both a Republican and a Democrat at different points in her life.

Jacobson also hopes to draw attention to the race, noting the lack of yard signs, billboards or any advertisement for anyone seeking the office.

She hopes her entering the race will have more citizens look up the candidates, reach out to them all and become better informed about the campaign. Jacobson also expressed interest in setting up a debate between herself and the two listed candidates.

Jacobson has volunteered with the Utah County Clerk/Auditor’s Office at the polls for almost 30 years in addition to working for over 40 years in the valley and Washington, D.C., in a host of fields.

She touts her work with the National Association of Securities Dealers in the examinations department dealing with U.S. citizens looking to work internationally before the internet age along with her efforts creating customer service departments for multiple Utah County businesses.

While a seasoned volunteer, Jacobson acknowledges there are things she doesn’t know about the job, but is eager to learn.

“Applying the statues and the regulations and all the responsibilities in the clerks office are things I would have to learn but I think I would be capable of doing,” she said.

Adams-Anderton reiterated the importance of Jacobson’s volunteerism with the clerk’s office, saying that she has a “wealth of information” that would be beneficial in the job.

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