‘The tech just wasn’t there:’ One Utah Republican’s caucus experience
Mar 6, 2024, 7:00 AM | Updated: 9:15 am
Caucus goers attending the Utah GOP caucus /presidential preference poll at Bingham High School on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. (Derrick Jones, KSL NewsRadio)
(Derrick Jones, KSL NewsRadio)
SALT LAKE CITY — Kerry Butler of South Jordan participated in the Republican caucus at Bingham High School on Tuesday.
“It was pretty chaotic,” she told KSL NewsRadio.
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One of the problems, according to Butler, was an email that she and others didn’t get from the Utah GOP.
“Apparently, that was the experience of a lot of folks,” she said. “You were supposed to get an email with a QR code to be able to check in.”
Butler reported that tensions were high, so much so that others were screaming at teenage volunteers because they couldn’t register.
After an hour, Utah caucus-goers finally saw progress
After about an hour of waiting in line, Butler said she was able to get onto the Utah GOP website and register. But at that point, she got a message from the website telling her she wasn’t a registered Republican.
“Which was directly contradictory to my voter registration, which I just had to look up to get onto the website in the first place,” she said.
Butler said that she was willing to stay, and did stay. But she saw what she described as “a lot of other people” leaving.
She said that Utah GOP representatives finally started letting caucus-goers register with their driver’s licenses.
Butler said the experience was reminiscent of the 2016 caucuses, when, as she put it, “the tech just wasn’t there.”
Her biggest concern is how the experience might impact the outcome.
“There are people who are not really that dedicated to being at a caucus in the first place, and then for it to be problematic, and leave.”
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