Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Davis County Clerk Brian McKenzie assured residents of election integrity protocols.
- A town hall demonstrated ballot processing, verification and counting procedures to attendees.
- A recent audit showed a 99.97% accuracy rate in voter registration records.
FARMINGTON — With the Nov. 4 election just weeks away, the Davis County Clerk's Office invited residents to get a look at how the county is upholding election integrity protocols.
In a town hall meeting held Wednesday evening, residents were able to see where ballots are processed, verified and counted. A focal point of the meeting emphasized the office's safeguard protections of election computers and software to maintain a chain of custody for ballots, verifying voter identification, and auditing results.
Davis County Clerk Brian McKenzie said it's important for the public to understand voter registration requirements, deadlines and what factors could result in their vote not being counted.
"We want to make sure your registration is correct and accurate to ensure that you get your ballot, or that when you show up at a polling location, you're able to receive your ballot," he said.
A list of the requirements can be found on the county clerk's website, in addition to the forms of identification that are acceptable when registering to vote.
During the town hall, McKenzie detailed a recently completed annual review of Davis County's voter registration records.
The audit reviewed the records of 229,989 voters — to verify accurate documentation, check ages of voters and match addresses using geographic information system or GIS maps.
The review found an accuracy rate of 99.97% for Davis County's voter registration system, according to McKenzie. He noted that some discrepancies were also discovered in the audit.
Many of the issues were related to voters missing proper documentation, age and address discrepancies, he said.
Despite the needed improvements, McKenzie said he was pleased with the results of the review.
"As I pointed out, we have a couple of areas that we need to work on," he said. "(Making) sure that we're selecting the correct cities; we need to make sure that we're checking the documentation (and) work with some voters that might have some issues with their ID numbers and stuff like that. We're actively working on resolving those and making sure that things are done accurately and securely into where we can have confidence in the system."
The town hall allowed participants to ask questions, where nothing was off-limits.
One resident was curious if the review discovered any voters who were not legal citizens of the United States. McKenzie said none were identified in the review, but he mentioned a statewide effort to track such individuals.
"Now I will tell you the lieutenant governor's office is currently conducting a statewide audit or review of our voter registration records, identifying anybody who does not verify as a citizen to determine if there is a problem or a question," he said.
McKenzie said a pre-election test and audit were performed on the county's ballot-counting system last week to confirm the machine is programmed correctly and accurately tabulates ballots.
The systems all passed and are ready to process ballots for the municipal general election, McKenzie said. A similar audit will be performed after the election to verify the accuracy of the voting machines.
Voters can access all pertinent information on Davis County's elections website.
