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LOA, Wayne County — State election officials are suing to contest results of the Wayne County Commission Republican primary last month, claiming the victor was illegally helped by his wife, who is also the county's deputy clerk.
Backing the allegations that Deputy County Clerk Coral Brinkerhoff used her position to help her husband, David Brinkerhoff, win the election is Coral Brinkerhoff's boss, Wayne County Clerk/Auditor Ryan Torgerson and Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah's top election official.
Cox filed the suit in 6th District Court Friday, asking a judge to overturn the election in which David Brinkerhoff defeated Gary Hallows by 55 votes, and to allow the GOP to choose another candidate for the general election.
According to the court filing, Coral Brinkerhoff, who has worked for the county for 15 years, used her position to manipulate the voter system to benefit her husband's election campaign.
The suit states Coral Brinkerhoff "wrongfully used her official position to improperly change voter affiliations" to permit some voters to receive Republican ballots and improperly accessed voter databases to "determine who had, or had not, voted by mail" and then used that information to call voters and urge them to vote for her husband.
In order to vote for David Brinkerhoff, voters would have to be affiliated as Republican since the GOP holds closed primaries.
The suit also says David Brinkerhoff "actively used the improperly gained information to contact voters and seek votes."
"As election officials, the voters entrust us to ensure our elections are administered with the utmost integrity," Cox said in a statement Friday. "Election misconduct will not be tolerated and will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
Calls and an email to the Brinkerhoffs for comment were not returned Friday. Torgerson declined comment Friday.
Hallows has joined Cox and Torgerson as a petitioner in the suit.
"My purpose isn't to protest the election to become commissioner — it's to do the system justice," Hallows told KSL. "I lost with integrity, but did David win with integrity?"
"Their activities caused great concern among the voters of Wayne County, some of whom declined to vote due to a fear that the (Brinkerhoffs) would be able to see how the voter cast their ballot," the lawsuit states. "The (Brinkerhoffs') activities have undermined the integrity of, and confidence in, the election process and changed the result of the election."
The suit states Coral Brinkerhoff made changes to the registration status of 21 percent of active registered voters during the election, while many of the affiliation changes did not have supporting documents. Many of those alleged changes were to affiliate an unaffiliated voter with the GOP.
The suit also alleges that Coral Brinkerhoff hand-delivered voter registration cards to many voters so they could change their party affiliations, then took the cards back to the clerk's office rather than having voters request the change in person or by mail, the normal procedure.
As election officials, the voters entrust us to ensure our elections are administered with the utmost integrity. -Spencer Cox, Lt. Governor
She also marked those changes in the computer system as if those voters had appeared in person, the suit alleges. And she personally filled out 12 voter registration cards, which did not contain addresses, telephone numbers or verification of identification, according to the lawsuit.
Workers also overheard the deputy clerk calling a voter, saying she knew she shouldn't be calling, but that she had noticed the voter had not yet cast their ballot and was not affiliated with a political party, according to the lawsuit. She then allegedly asked the voter to affiliate with the GOP.
The voter later complained to Torgerson about the call and said they would not vote in the primary election, believing that if Coral Brinkerhoff had access to voting statuses, she would also be able to tell how a certain vote was cast, the suit states.
Investigations also showed that Coral Brinkerhoff had compiled 14 computer reports — not available to other candidates — some of which showed who had or hadn't voted.
The suit alleges Brinkerhoff acknowledged to Torgerson that she and her husband had called voters the night before the primary election asking them to get their votes in, but she denied knowing whether they had voted.
The suit goes on to allege that Torgerson also once discovered Coral Brinkerhoff campaigning for her husband during work hours in the county's courthouse.
"Coral Brinkerhoff's malconduct and corruption were sufficient to change the results of the 2016 primary election, given that she had access to official information, not available to other campaigns, which she used to specifically contact certain voters, urge them to vote because they had not yet done so, and to ask them to vote for her husband," the suit states.
A criminal investigation of the allegations against the Brinkerhoffs is currently being conducted by several law enforcement agencies.
"Voting is a sacred thing," Hallows said, "and yet the whole process is in jeopardy in our county because of this."
