Washington County Clerk/Auditor taking steps to ensure every eligible ballot gets counted
Oct 18, 2024, 1:00 PM | Updated: 1:14 pm
Ballots at the Salt Lake County Clerk’s ballot processing room on Election Day in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. Officials in Washington County are working to ensure voting in their county is secure. The Washington County Clerk-Auditor has some advice. (Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)
(Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)
WASHINGTON COUNTY, Utah — The Washington County Clerk/Auditor has a few recommendations for the county’s residents who want to make sure their ballot is counted this election.
Back in July, then-Congressional candidate Colby Jenkins filed a lawsuit petitioning the Utah Supreme Court to direct the clerks in several counties to accept, and count, nearly 1,200 ballots that had been disqualified.
The ballots were postmarked too late to count in the Republican primary election. Jenkins argued these ballots were stamped late because they had gone to Las Vegas, adding an extra day before they were stamped.
The court ultimately ruled against Jenkins. The certification of the election results went forward, with Rep. Celeste Maloy beating Jenkins by 176 votes.
Washington County Clerk and Auditor Ryan Sullivan said in preparation for this election, he’s been advising voters to do one of three things.
First, either vote in person or use one of the county’s 19 ballot drop boxes.
“Those ballots are all picked up by my staff. And so if you want a 100% guarantee that your ballot is going to make it to the election center, vote in person, or put your ballot on these drop boxes.”
Voting by mail in Washington County
However, Sullivan said he didn’t want to discourage people from voting by mail.
“I understand that some people, their only option is to vote by mail,” Sullivan said. “But if you’re going to do it, I highly suggest that you mail it early.”
For voters looking to mail their ballots closer to election day, Sullivan suggested going into a post office and having a clerk hand-stamp your ballot’s envelope.
“Make sure you can read the date on the postmark before you let them mail that [ballot] off.”
Sullivan said he’s also talked with local postmasters in Washington County to ensure they’re doing their part to get every eligible ballot counted.
“They’ve told me that they’re gathering up all of those ballots that come in the day before the election and they’re going to hand stamp those with the postmark so they get postmarked in a timely [manner].”
How does the trip to Las Vegas affect ballots?
Sullivan doesn’t think sending the ballots to Las Vegas for stamping is as big a deal as it’s been made out to be.
Sullivan said he did a test after the last election.
“I mailed out several test pieces of mail at different locations at different times throughout Washington County. And you know what? The mail did exactly what I would expect it to do.”
Sullivan said that if he turned in the mail before the pickup time, it was all postmarked in Las Vegas with that day’s date.
“If I put it in after the pickup time… it got postmarked the following day in Las Vegas.”
In the end, Sullivan said it’s the voter’s responsibility to get the ballot in on time.
“Look people, you can’t mail your ballot on Election Day because it is late.”
