How does Utah ensure election security ahead of election season?

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah leaders say the state’s election security system is strong leading into this year’s election.

According to Morgan & May Public Affairs partner and KSL At Night host Taylor Morgan, a computer will verify the voter’s signature before a Utah ballot even gets opened in a voting center. The computer signature verification compares signatures against as many as a dozen other ones from the same person. Additionally, some signitures may even get a manual review.

“In our larger first-class and second-class counties, those offices have received training from the FBI in forensics when it comes to identifying signatures,” Morgan said.

However, one frequent concern has been ballot harvesting. That’s when somebody delivers someone else’s ballot to a ballot box.

Utah Valley University’s Herbert Institute also looked at election security in the state. It found that Utah has criminalized ballot harvesting. The state also requires all voting machines to be checked multiple times before voters even lay fingers on them.

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