What to know before Utah’s primary election

SALT LAKE CITY — The primary election in Utah is Tuesday, here is everything you need to know for election day.

In June, Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, announced he would resign from his seat on Sept. 15 to take care of his family. This left Gov. Spencer Cox with a short period of time to create a new special election to replace the congressman. The dates chosen to accommodate the special election will affect the whole state.

The new dates are as follows:

• The municipal and special primary elections are on Sept. 5
• The municipal and special general elections are Nov. 21
• The last day to register to vote online for the primary election is Aug. 25
• The last day to request a mail ballot for the primary election is 5 p.m. Aug. 29
• Residents can register to vote on election day at their polling place.

Voters will have until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 5 to cast their vote at a polling place, or to drop a ballot off at a drop box location. Ballots that are mailed must be postmarked by the U.S. Post Office the day of, or before, Election Day.

Primary election day is Sept. 5, 2023.

Candidates

To learn about all the candidates in the coming primary election, visit Votesearch Utah. 

KSL gave all candidates an opportunity to answer eight questions to get voters a chance to learn more about them. You can see all the candidates on the KSL Elections Page.

Here’s how the three Republican candidates in the race answered:

Bruce Hough

Celeste Maloy

Becky Edwards

KSL NewsRadio reached out to Becky Edward’s team for a chance to do an interview multiple times. Edwards did not make herself available for the interview despite those attempts.

How Utah is preparing for the elections

Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson told KSL NewsRadio how voters can become more active in the election process.

She said she is hopeful that curiosity will help more individuals become involved in the election process.

“At some point too, we would love more people to get involved in the actual process through being a poll worker or a poll watcher,” she said.

She also stressed that Utah’s elections are safe and secure.

“We’ve put so many measures, checks and balances into place,” Henderson said. “And the whole thing is public so any voter can go during any part of the process and watch for themselves.”

You can catch the full interview below.

Related reading:

• Poll puts Edwards in the lead for special election; but nearly half of GOP voters undecided
• Turnout in the race to replace Congressman Chris Stewart around 15 percent
• Video: Tune in to KSL NewsRadio for the second congressional debate for the special election.