ST. GEORGE — As the official results of the 2022 general election in Washington County were certified by the County Commission during a special meeting Tuesday, discussion regarding continuing concerns over the results of the county’s election integrity and what elected officials planned to do about it wasn’t far behind.
Ballot count breakdown
Overall, 105,450 active and registered voters in the county were sent mail-in ballots. Of that, 70,003 ballots were returned with the overwhelming majority delivered through mail or collected from drop boxes. In-person ballots made up 4,339 of the total returns.
Ballots not counted made up an additional 3,913, with the bulk of that – 2,395 – being listed as “un-deliverable.”
“Usually that means somebody moved,” Washington County Clerk/Auditor Susan Lewis told the commission when asked about it.
Those ballots are mailed out but then return unused as the records of said voter were not updated prior to ballots going out.
Ballots received past the deadline of Election Day amounted to 514 ballots, while 943 were not cured. The latter were not counted due to either lacking a signature or a signature not matching the sample on the county’s records. In these cases, someone from the County Clerk/Auditor’s Office calls the individual the ballot was sent to and asks them to “cure” the ballot. This involves going to the county office and either signing the ballot or confirming the signature.
Of provincial ballots cast on Election Day, 484 were added to the overall totals while an additional 61 were not counted for various reasons. The main reason for this was the voter lacking proof of residency in the county followed by turning in incomplete applications.
Of the 105,450 active and registered voters recorded to be in Washington County, the official vote total place ballot returns/voter turnout at 66.38%.
Concerns for election integrity continue
Following the Republican primary election in June and the general election earlier this month, a collective of Washington County residents has consistently voiced their concerns about election integrity and security in the county. This was largely spurred on by disagreement over the razor-thin returns of the primary race for Utah House District 72 between Republican candidates Willie Billings and Joseph Elison.
Unofficial returns in the House 72 race were so close it triggered a recount, in which Elison maintained a lead by a handful of votes as he had before the recount. The disagreement between county officials and some concerned citizens took root in the accompanying audit of the recount results.
Lewis and the County Commission repeatedly state the purpose of the audit was to confirm the accuracy of the vote-county machines the county used and nothing more. Billings and his supporters argued the audit results actually showed a sampling of the overall House 72 race that put him in the lead by 60% and subsequently demanded a hand recount due to a general mistrust of the county’s voting machines.
Despite calls for another recount, the County Commission certified the results of the primary election in Elison’s favor.
In the County Commission meetings that followed in the wake of June’s primary election, citizens who remained concerned about the county’s elections process attended meeting after meeting. They often came with signs demanding a recount and an analysis of the county’s vote cast record, or CVR, be done. This, they said, would ensure the accuracy of the county’s elections and help restore voter confidence.
Commissioner Adam Snow said the county listened in this regard and others and had a CVR analysis done before they certified the general election results. However, as CVR results are universal from system to system and lack certain data points to test the analysis against, all it really produced was a record of who voted for whom and provided none of the data people calling for the CVR analysis said it would yield.
“What we will do, and what we what we are committed to doing, is working on the policies and procedures in advance of an election,” Snow said, adding that much of the frustration people felt toward elections in general were a result of alleged mishaps during the 2020 presidential race.
Both Snow and Commission Chair Victor Iverson noted the county is moving ahead on getting new vote-tabulation machines that will provide a greater range of data than the current machines. The county is also looking to work with third-party auditors to help with future election audits.
There is only so much the county government can do, Iverson said, as some of the things the collective of vote accuracy-seeking citizens have asked for are dictated by state law. Changing aspects of the state’s election policies requires changes to the law. The commission is already lobbying the legislature for those changes, he said.
“This should be a statewide issue,” Snow said. “There’s more we can do and we’ll commit to continuing to do that so we can have a very clear path forward.”
Snow’s words resulted in a quick bout of clapping from citizens attending Tuesday’s commission meeting.
The official canvass results
U.S. Senate
| EVAN MCMULLIN | 17786 | (25.59%) |
| JAMES ARTHUR HANSEN | 1526 | (2.2%) |
| MIKE LEE | 49420 | (71.11%) |
| TOMMY WILLIAMS | 769 | (1.11%) |
U.S. House District 2
| NICK MITCHELL | 13277 | (19.24%) |
| JAYMAC MCFARLAND | 1111 | (1.61%) |
| CASSIE EASLEY | 3087 | (4.47%) |
| CHRIS STEWART | 51518 | (74.67%) |
State Treasurer
| MARLO M. OAKS | 54104 | (82.74%) |
| THOMAS ALAN HORNE | 2338 | (3.58%) |
| WARREN T ROGERS | 3133 | (4.79%) |
| JOSEPH GEDDES BUCHMAN | 5813 | (8.89%) |
State Senate District 28
| EVAN J. VICKERS | 11948 | (77.67%) |
| PATRICIA A. BRADFORD | 1523 | (9.9%) |
| BARRY EVAN SHORT | 1912 | (12.43%) |
State House District 72
| JOSEPH ELISON | 14887 | (81.39%) |
| ILA M. FICA | 3404 | (18.61%) |
State House District 73
| COLIN W. JACK | 13596 | (100%) |
State House District 74
| R. NEIL WALTER | 15666 | (100%) |
State House District 75
| WALT BROOKS | 12621 | (100%) |
County Commission Seat A
| ROBERT FORD | 15297 | (22.64%) |
| GIL ALMQUIST | 52277 | (77.36%) |
County Commission Seat B
| VICTOR IVERSON | 50814 | (75.78%) |
| CHUCK GOODE | 16243 | (24.22%) |
County Commission Seat C – Special 2 Year
| REBECCA WINSOR | 15475 | (23.03%) |
| ADAM SNOW | 51722 | (76.97%) |
County Attorney
| J. ROBERT LATHAM | 13608 | (21%) |
| ERIC CLARKE | 51177 | (79%) |
County Clerk/Auditor
| SUSAN LEWIS | 55717 | (90.5%) |
| Write-in: Patricia Kent | 5120 | (8.32%) |
| Write-in | 732 | (1.19%) |
County Sheriff
| NATE BROOKSBY | 58727 | (100%) |
Local School Board District 4
| LARENE L. COX | 5497 | (100%) |
Local School Board District 5
| EDYTH LANG | 3088 | (33.94%) |
| DAVID B. STIRLAND | 6011 | (66.06%) |
Local School Board District 6
| KELLY BLAKE | 3623 | (36.72%) |
| BURKE STAHELI | 6244 | (63.28%) |
Local School Board District 7
| NANNETTE SIMMONS | 6469 | (100%) |
Constitutional Amendment A
| FOR | 22172 | (34.88%) |
| AGAINST | 41400 | (65.12%) |
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.