Voter turnout: About a third of Utah voters cast ballots in 2025 municipal elections

SALT LAKE CITY — Votes are still being tallied for this year’s municipal elections, but it looks like a little less than one third of voters cast their ballots.

That’s pretty typical for municipal election years Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson told Utah’s Morning News. The last municipal election in 2023 was a little higher only because there was federal significance.

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“It was a special congressional district election that year and the turnout for that particular CD 2 election was about 40%,” Henderson said. “This year the overall turnout is looking like it’s going to be 30%.”

Meanwhile, last year’s election, which was during a presidential election year, had 85% voter participation.

There were some changes to election law this year that meant ballots had to be in the hands of the clerk’s office by election night, instead of postmarked on election day, like in past years. Henderson says it is too soon to tell how that change impacted the totals.

“We might get a better understanding of how many people mailed their ballots and if they didn’t get to the clerks in time … we’ll have an accurate number of that in the coming days,” Henderson explained.

Voter turnout varies widely by county. Salt Lake and Utah counties are coming in at 23% and 22%, respectively, while more rural counties like Piute and Garfield are boasting upwards of 60% participation.

Henderson believes the election went as smoothly as they could have hoped.

“Turnout was, of course, about what you would expect for a municipal election, which is definitely down from last year’s regular election,” Henderson explained. “But overall things went well.”