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DRAPER — A disqualified candidate for Draper City Council has lost his suit in which he claimed that the city’s elections officer and a too-fast clock in her office improperly kept him out of the race.
On Friday, 3rd District Judge Keith Kelly ruled in favor of the city and dismissed Hubert Huh’s petition that was filed last month. Huh had claimed he arrived at the city recorder’s office to file a campaign finance report with about a minute to spare on Aug. 6, but was turned away and disqualified from the race.
But according to a statement from the city, Kelly said Huh did not provide his disclosures until 6:38 p.m. the day they were due — long after the 5 p.m. deadline.
When Huh first arrived at City Hall at 5:01 p.m., he did not have the required disclosure documents with him, Kelly wrote in court documents.
“Mr. Huh knew, or should have known, the deadline to submit his campaign finance statement was Aug. 6, 2019, at 5 p.m. He had run for Draper City Council once before in 2017. He was familiar with the process and with the requirements to timely file various declarations and disclosures, including his campaign finance statement,” Kelly wrote in court documents.
City Recorder Laura Oscarson initially gave an incorrect Aug. 8 deadline for campaign finance disclosures and didn’t point out the error in later emails that referenced the correct cutoff, which was two days earlier at 5 p.m., Huh’s attorneys argued in the lawsuit.
But Kelly said that in later emails, Oscarson “unequivocally corrected the prior emails and identified the correct deadline.”
“We hope this ruling serves as a reminder that no one is above the law,” said Draper 7
Mayor Troy Walker in a statement Friday. “We didn’t make the law, but we are required to strictly enforce it.”
