State officials weigh in on Utah County’s long election lines

UTAH COUNTY – People all over the state are still waiting for more results to come out of parts of Utah and high-ranking state officials are weighing in about Utah County’s long election lines at polling locations.

Governor Gary Herbert issued a prepared statement to the Deseret News, saying, “The voting public deserves better,” adding, “Anytime we have a glitch on election night, Utah County seems to be the epicenter of dysfunction.”

In a Twitter response to someone asking why the lines were so slow, Lieutenant Governor Spencer Cox stated his office warned Utah County to adjust to the new vote by mail system, but they didn’t.

Utah County Clerk/Auditor Chief Deputy Scott Hogensen takes exception to that.

“We had ten additional machines that we rented for just this time to put into the pool.”

Hogensen says they have the equipment needed for a midterm election, but, they also have a lot of voting machines in storage they weren’t allowed to use.

“It wasn’t an option to run the old system this last time.  It’s not licensed anymore, and it’s just in storage until it’s disposed of,” he adds.

So far, the county has only released the results of roughly 87-thousand ballots, which Hogensen says is more than half of their total number.  However, another update is not expected until Friday.

“We’re in the canvassing period now where we go through everything and finalize all this stuff,” Hogensen said.