SALT LAKE CITY — Vote-by-mail nearly doubled voter turnout in Salt Lake County and other municipalities across Utah for Tuesday's primary election, but the new program — a first for many cities — also caused a few problems.

It will take at least a week to officially determine the winners in six close city council races in Salt Lake County and Davis County because many last-minute mail ballots could still be making their way back to clerks' offices.

In Utah County, Orem received nearly 1,300 by-mail ballots the day after the election due to a miscommunication at a post office, so that bulk of votes won't be made public until the city finishes its canvassing on Aug. 25.

"As much as everyone tries, there is just such thing as a perfect election — there never is," said State Elections Director Mark Thomas. "By conducting vote-by-mail in such a widespread election in so many cities, it allows us to learn what we need to do better. I think everyone did the best they could to prepare, knowing there was going to be some challenges."

Uncertain results

Election results are never final until city councils finishing canvassing, which is required by law seven to 14 days after an election. But while vote-by-mail increases voter turnout, it also increases the number of ballots that won't be counted on election night, Thomas said.

So results have the potential to flip in close races, yet voters won't know results until at least a week after the election because state law prohibits clerks from publicly updating vote counts between election night and the official vote canvas.

According to Tuesday night's preliminary results, only eight votes separate Herriman City Council candidates Jared Henderson and Steve Garrett, making it too close to call as to who will actually advance to the general election.

In the Salt Lake City Council District 4 race, along with races in West Jordan, Holladay, Kaysville and Farmington, candidates are within roughly 2 percent of winning or losing a spot in the Nov. 3 election.

As of Friday, about 1,500 Salt Lake County ballots have arrived back to the clerk's office and still need to be counted in the results, said Rozan Mitchell, the county's election director.

But a state lawmaker wants to address the issue. Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, aims to change the law that stops public vote updates in order to speed up and clarify the process.

"It just leaves people in limbo for no good reason," Eliason said.

He plans to propose the change during the next legislative session.

However, Mitchell said Salt Lake County election officials feel the law change could be "problematic" for county clerks, especially if any new law requires daily updates.

"It could make the results more difficult to track because they could flip every single day," Mitchell said.

She added it could also make the process more "hectic."

"It would be really hard for us to do that daily," she said. "But maybe it would be a little easier to handle if we only did one interim release."

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First surge of vote-by-mail ballots hit Utahns' mailboxes

Sixteen pallets stacked full of ballots arrived at the Salt Lake City Post Office. Those ballots will be delivered to more 80,000 mailboxes throughout the city in advance of the Aug. 11 primary election.

Postal issues

In Orem, nearly 1,300 by-mail ballots were postmarked the day before the election but weren't delivered until Wednesday morning, according to the city's recorder, Donna Weaver.

The late delivery was reportedly due to a miscommunication at the Shadow Mountain Post Office, where an employee took the day off Tuesday and did not relay the information that vote-by-mail ballots should be delivered straight to the city rather than pass through the Salt Lake City postal processing center.

"It would have been better if we could have counted them on Tuesday, but it is what it is," Weaver said. "They'll be counted and they'll be part of the tally just like they would have been anyway."

Results from the late ballots — which make up more than 12 percent of the 10,500 ballots that were returned in Orem — won't be posted until the city finishes canvassing Aug. 25.

Although Weaver said late ballots typically follow the same voting patterns shown in preliminary results, it's possible Orem City Council candidates Claude Richards and Lorne Grierson could be impacted by the late tallies, since they're separated by less than 300 votes.

"It could flip, but it isn't going to have any more of a difference, in my opinion, than a traditional election run with permanent absentee ballots," Weaver said. "Those candidates would still be on pins and needles in a typical election."

What is concerning to Weaver is the fact that on Thursday, her office received 100 ballots that are not eligible to be counted because voters failed to postmark them by Aug. 10. She said she wishes the Utah Legislature would change the rule to allow vote-by-mail ballots to be postmarked on Election Day.

"That one extra day could have made a huge difference for the 100 people who mailed their ballots on Election Day that now won't be counted," she said.

Overall, Thomas said primary elections went well, especially considering increased voter turnout across vote-by-mail cities.

"That doesn't mean things were perfect," he said. "We know there will be errors, but we work very hard to make sure they don't happen. Now clerks can respond to the issues and figure out how to work through them."

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