The 3 things you need to know about Super Tuesday in Utah
Feb 25, 2020, 6:24 PM | Updated: Mar 3, 2020, 12:56 pm
Dessie Weigel votes on the first day of early voting at the Salt Lake County Clerk's Office in the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2020. Photo: Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
Utah is taking part in “Super Tuesday” — a multiple-state primary blitz — for the first time during the 2020 presidential election cycle.
Here are the three things you need to know about Mar. 3, 2020.
1. You can still vote even if you didn’t get a mail-in ballot yet
The deadline to request a Super Tuesday ballot in Utah was Feb. 25, 2020. And the deadline to postmark a mail-in ballot was Mar. 2, 2020. But if you missed either deadline, you can still vote.
Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen says there are a number of in-person options for casting a vote.
“At the in-person voting locations, they can do Election Day or same-day registration,” Swensen said. “We also have in-person voting, because sometimes people don’t get a ballot, they’ve moved, not updated their address, [or] they may need the amenities of the electronic voting machine, which has an audio ballot.”
Each county clerk’s office will have a list of the in-person voting locations that will be available on Super Tuesday.
If you missed the postmark deadline, you can drop mail-in ballots off at the designated drop-off centers on Super Tuesday.
2. You don’t have to be a Democrat to vote in their primary on Super Tuesday
In Utah, Democrats are holding an “open primary” on Super Tuesday. That means anyone can request a Democratic ballot, regardless of party affiliation.
Do be careful, though — there are some candidates whose names are on the ballot even though they’ve dropped out of the race ahead of Super Tuesday.
To vote in the Republican primary, you must choose to affiliate with the Republican party.
On the Republican ticket, President Donald Trump is not the only choice. A total of seven candidates are on the Republican primary ballot in Utah.
One name is on both the Republican and the Democratic ballot in Utah: Roque De La Fuente. It’s not the same person, though. The De La Fuente on the Republican ballot is the father of the other candidate.
3. County clerks say interest is already high in the primary
As of Feb. 18, 2020, the Utah County Clerk’s Office said it had already received over 13,000 early ballots. In Salt Lake County, it was 40,000.
Davis County officials urged voters to plan ahead to avoid long lines on Super Tuesday. They encouraged voters to request mail-in ballots rather than wait until the last minute.
In both Salt Lake and Utah Counties, clerks told KSL they were seeing an uptick in voter registration ahead of the primary.
“At one point, I heard we had about 6,000 additional registrations. This early in the year, that’s a record,” Swensen told KSL NewsRadio.
Part of the increased interest is attributed to Utah’s participation in Super Tuesday for the first time. In past election cycles, such as 2008, the parties’ nominees have been more or less settled before Utahns go to the polls.
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More information can be found at vote.utah.gov
In-person early voting starts in Utah for Super Tuesday
Countdown to Super Tuesday: What you need to know to vote in the presidential primaries
Your Voice, Your Vote: 2020 Presidential Candidates
