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PROVO — Several Utah County residents questioned the integrity of this year's primary elections results on Wednesday during a County Commission meeting that often degraded to complaints about mail-in ballots and voting machines.
Commissioner Bill Lee — who lost in the primary to his opponent Brandon Gordon — proposed during the meeting to hold a discussion about the county's board of canvassers meeting.
He said he wants the county to create a plan to perform a statistical analysis of the election.
"I think it's important that we as a community try to find solutions to some of the challenges we have and that come up, and I don't think any of us, hopefully, don't want to shy away from challenges that come up even if they're hard ones that we kind of have to work through," Lee said.
He added that he's "trying to find a way to heal … a divide that seems to be there in that both sides, in that there's election integrity problems, and there's election possibilities that we don't know about."
"We as commissioners, we want fair elections. We want honest elections. We want to be able to verify elections as much as possible, without compromising the integrity of the election, without it compromising the machines, without burdening a system that has a lot of moving parts," he said.
Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner noted that the county performs an elections audit already, but she suggested contracting with an outside firm for another audit.
She noted the election has been certified already, which might make it difficult for auditors to get records. But the county does release comprehensive election information, Gardner noted, which auditors could potentially look at.
Commissioner Tom Sakievich said he believes a comprehensive review of the results will be important to members of the community.
State law passed this year now requires security cameras at ballot drop boxes, an expensive undertaking for counties. Utah County spent $20,000 on surveillance equipment to meet the requirement. Many of the ballot drop boxes were placed inside public buildings with existing surveillance systems, Utah County Clerk/Auditor Josh Daniels said last month.
Daniels said at the time he wants Utahns to know the state handles elections "really well." Concerns people have around the country about election security "often aren't applicable" to Utah, according to Daniels.
"Somebody might see something on the internet about a concern in another state which may be somewhat inaccurate even to what that other state does, and then try to apply that here in Utah. ... I think Utahns need to have faith and confidence in our elections. We don't have significant problems. There's been no finding of significant problems. I would ask people to scrutinize the information they're receiving," he said.
During the ensuing public comment session, several residents pleaded for the review and changes to the election system, decrying the use of mail-in ballots and voting machines. Residents pointed to several conspiracy theories regarding election security, including unfounded allegations that voting machines can't be trusted.
Sylvia Andrew, of Provo, said she ran for a state Senate seat.
"So I know a little about running for office, I've gone door to door many times … And this last election just seemed fishy. I just can't believe that every single America first, patriotic kind of person for election integrity, everyone that I know of except for Kera Birkeland lost their primary races," he said.
"I'm not a statistician, but it doesn't make sense. So this is vital that we have election integrity. And I don't trust machines either, I don't trust 'em."
Vince Neumeyer, of Lindon, said, "I have great concerns over the clarity of our elections. These machines have become a black box. Data goes in, answers come out. We really don't know what goes inside. However, there have been, in recent times ... peeks inside of that, and what they have found has been very concerning."
"We cannot have clarity and trust with machines. We've got to go back to paper on the day, hand counted," he said.
When one woman questioned whether even auditors could be trusted, as people can be "bought off" — and what happens if someone won the election wrongfully — Lee emphasized he certified the election "in which I lost that reelection."
"This is not an attempt to do anything in the nature of — even if it was to come back and there was other things that were going on — the certification would stand, in my mind. It would just move forward," Lee said.
He added that "it can be litigated forever, in a lot of respects."
Another resident took issue with Lee's promise to abide by the primary election results.
She said it's "a necessity that we access those ballots and that we hand count them and that we make sure that it's right so we have that record."
"I also think it's very unfair for Billy to step down, because if there is a discrepancy, that's very unfair to the voters that voted for you, if there were problems," she said, referring to Lee's election loss. "So I hope you will remain in office if they find something."
If Utah County has the chance to be the one in the state to "clarify things," she said, "let's do it."
The County Commission agreed to look into going through a request for proposals process to seek statistical analysis firms to audit the primary election results.
