Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SUMMIT COUNTY — The Summit County Clerk's office has been placed on quarantine after the staff was exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
The staff will be quarantined beginning on Monday through Friday, Nov. 6, 2020.
"Approximately 18,000 ballots were received by the Clerk's Office through end of day Friday, October 30 and will be posted Election Night," the County wrote on Facebook.
The county said the five-day quarantine is their best-case scenario if all the tests results from those exposed come back negative.
"All ballots that are returned through the mail or to an area drop box will continue to be collected by election volunteers. The Clerk's Office will process these additional ballots as soon as staff members are cleared by health officials to safely end quarantine. A finalized ballot count will still be available on November 17 for the Election Canvas (sic) official tally of votes."
As in all elections, ballots are counted after Election Day and Summit County Clerk Kent Jones said this year will be the same.
"The Summit County Clerk's Office counts ballots after Election Night each Election Year. Every ballot cast will be accounted for and included in the election totals," he said.
The County said that the drive-through voting location on Election Day for those who need voting assistance at the Summit County Fairgrounds will still proceed as normal.
They also emphasized that all ballots must be postmarked by Monday, November 2 to be counted. Voters can also return their ballots to official drop boxes which will be available at locations in Summit County until 8 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3.
Those ballot drop box locations in Summit County are:
- Coalville City Hall – 10 N. Main, Coalville
- County Clerk's Office – 60 N. Main, Coalville
- Summit County Services Building – 110 N. Main, Kamas (Box located at entrance on the east side of the building off of the parking lot. Open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday - Friday)
- Park City Municipal Building – 445 Marsac Ave.
- The Market at Park City – 1500 Snow Creek Dr.
- Sheldon Richins Building – 1885 W. Ute Blvd, Park City (Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday. Located at the north entrance, by the car charging stations)
- Fresh Market Jeremy Ranch – 3151 Kilby Rd., Park City
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.
