Your Voice, Your Vote — In person voting
Nov 2, 2018, 8:10 AM | Updated: Nov 8, 2022, 11:39 am
FILE PHOTO (Deseret News)
(Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — We are just days away from the mid-term election, and this week KSL Newsradio looks at the issues and candidates Utahns will consider as they mail in their ballots or visit local polling stations. Today, we look at in-person voting.
Who votes in person?
You’re a stickler for tradition. You do things the old-fashioned way by showing up bright and early at your assigned polling location on election day to do your civic duty.
Vote by mail? No way.
Or maybe you just forget until the last possible moment or your mail-in ballot is lost in that mountain of unopened mail in the kitchen.
No judgment.
Whichever category you fall into, voting in person is still a somewhat popular method, but State Elections Director Justin Lee says 90 percent of primary voters did so by mail and 2/3 of voters for the 2016 election. He adds it’s hard to say what exactly will happen this year now that 27 of 29 counties have mail-in voting.
“I wouldn’t expect to see more than maybe 20, 25 percent of people go and vote on Election Day,” says Lee. “And my guess is it’s probably going to be fewer than that.”
How does voting in person work?
You’re still perfectly fine to drop into your area polling location to cast your ballot. But, in some counties, you might have further to drive.
“Some counties, they have one maybe two, other counties provide several more,” Lee says. “So, it is certainly tougher geographically, time-wise in the car in some places than others.”
Click here to find the nearest vote center to you.
What do I need to vote?
Lee says you don’t need to worry about much when you get to your vote center, provided you’re a U.S. citizen and have a residence here in Utah.
“What they do need to be worried about is making sure they take in proper I.D. on election day,” explains Lee. “That is an identification that shows who they are and that they reside in that precinct or county.”
Vote centers will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on November 6.
If you’d rather drop off your mail-in ballot, you can do that at a vote center instead.
