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ST. GEORGE — State election officials affirmed to lawmakers this week that county clerks and election staff are in compliance with state and federal law when it comes to voter registration processing, but they also suggested areas of improvement to further secure elections.
Daniel Wade, election systems specialist with the Utah Lieutenant Governor's Office, reported the findings from a recent voter registration audit to members of the Utah Legislature's Government Operations Interim Committee during a meeting in St. George on Monday. As part of a new election security package passed by lawmakers in 2022, HB313 requires the lieutenant governor to conduct such audits at least every year.
The audit reviewed a total of 336 voter records dating back to 2006, including multiple from every county in the state. Officials reviewed the records to ensure that election staff documented any changes to a voter record and to make sure voter records matched the information provided on registration forms.
The report found issues with less than 2% of the data points they reviewed, and Wade said the results show that election officials are following applicable laws.
"Overall findings indicate that the county clerks and their staff are processing voter registration forms in accordance with Utah and federal law," he said. "A common pattern, albeit infrequent, is the failure to attach documentation to a voter's record that supports changes made to the record. In the case of addressing and party affiliation, checks and balances are in place that would alert the voter if changes to their address or affiliation had been mistakenly made."
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson's office will conduct a similar audit every quarter going forward, in order to provide county clerks with information about recent findings to correct.
Because this audit includes data going back 18 years, not all of the findings are emblematic of current practices within county clerk's offices, Wade said.
"Our county clerks can't change what happened numerous years ago, but they can correct mistakes that they are made aware of and use the information from this audit as a reminder of the importance of keeping accurate voter records," he said.
Future audits will shed further light on any ongoing issues with voter registration and show how effective recent election security legislation has been, said Thomas Vaughn, managing associate general counsel with the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel.
"One thing that is common to think about is, 'OK, is there anything that we need to fix, anything we need to change?' Which is a completely appropriate question," he told the committee. "One thing I wanted to remind the committee of is that the Legislature ... put in place many provisions for tracking and making sure that the voter registration database is updated properly and regularly. So, it will be interesting to see in the future ... how those numbers change based upon the requirements that the Legislature put in."
