Nonprofit working to build trust in Utah elections
Jun 18, 2024, 10:51 AM
Mail-in ballots are sorted at the Salt Lake County Election Division offices in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2016. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
(Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — A new nonprofit is working to help build voter trust in Utah elections.
A week from today, Utahns will head to the polls to choose their parties’ candidates for the elections in November.
The non-profit group Trust Utah Elections hopes to reassure everyone that they can trust the process.
“There is fraud that takes place,” said Stan Lockhart, a former Utah Republican Party Chair.
“It’s not huge, but there are mothers of missionaries that vote for their kids. That is the greatest source of fraud we’ve discovered in our audits. And there is a well-defined process for remedying that problem … They do not want to send a bunch of moms to jail.”
Former Utah County Clerk Josh Daniels said Trust Utah Elections is working to prevent a repeat of the election four years ago.
“You had self-appointed experts asserting that they know what is and isn’t true about election administration,” Daniels said. “You know, way out over their skies asserting all kinds of wild things about what happens behind the scenes of election administration.”
The group said if someone is worried about the election process, they can contact their county clerk and volunteer to be a poll watcher.
Don Brinkerhoff is a reporter and producer for KSL NewsRadio.
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