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SALT LAKE CITY — It's the final stretch.
Utah ballots are continuing to surge back to clerks in daily waves. As of Friday afternoon — T minus four days before Election Day — more than 872,000 ballots had been returned and processed to be included in election night tallies.
But the big question is whether it will be enough to avoid long lines on Election Day?
"I hope so," Utah Elections Director Justin Lee said on Friday. "I'm still concerned people are going to show up on Election Day thinking they'll be able to vote in person and be disappointed because most counties will simply be printing the paper ballot ... We don't want people to go in line and waste their time when they (could) have a ballot in hand."
Amid the pandemic, polling places are limited in numbers and are meant to be reserved only for people who need assistance casting their votes, and most counties are only using paper voting and not electronic voting. Election officials have been urging Utahns to either mail or drop off their by-mail ballots, which have been mailed to over 1.85 million Utahns registered to vote, according to the state's elections website.
With about 50,000 ballots being returned almost daily — and perhaps an even bigger surge expected this weekend — Lee said it's possible Utah could surpass its 1.1 million ballots counted in the days before the 2016 presidential election.
"If we keep at this rate, we could get to that number before Election Day, or early on Election Day, which is great news for us," Lee said. "We really hope that continues for the next few days."
Record-breaking turnout is expected. As of Friday, the state's voter turnout rate rested at about 52%. In 2016, final turnout was about 82% of active registered voters.
I'm still concerned people are going to show up on Election Day thinking they'll be able to vote in person and be disappointed because most counties will simply be printing the paper ballot ... We don't want people to go in line and waste their time when they (could) have a ballot in hand.
–Utah Elections Director Justin Lee
Due to the national discourse over voting by mail, fueled by President Donald Trump's accusations, without evidence, that vote by mail is fraught with fraud, conservatives may be more inclined to want to vote in person.
But "regardless of party affiliation," Lee said "we continue to encourage everyone" to use their mail-in ballot. "We're really wanting everyone to avoid those polls unless they really need that help."
As of Friday morning, 325,660 ballots had been returned in Salt Lake County, 142,885 in Utah County, 109,165 in Davis County and 56,635 in Weber County, as well as thousands more in other counties throughout the state, according to state election officials' tallies.
Utah law requires ballots to be postmarked by the end of the day Monday, before Election Day. Post office workers have recommended Utahns mail their ballots at least a week in advance of Election Day — so if they haven't mailed it yet, voters can ensure their ballots get postmarked on time by walking into the post office. Voters can also drop their ballots off in secure drop boxes located throughout every county, until 8 p.m. on Election Day.
2020 Election
Increased mail-in voting, COVID-19, and a variety of state-by-state election formats contribute to a unique 2020 election. As a result, it is likely that many close House and Senate races, as well as the presidency, will not be called on Nov. 3. States may also shift in outcome in the days or weeks following the election — an expected change experts have warned about as results are returned. While human error happens, both mail-in and in-person voting have extremely low rates of fraud. The state of Utah has used vote-by-mail since 2012. It has safeguards in place to make sure every ballot it receives is legitimate.
