The midterm elections are coming up next week and voters in Wasatch and Summit Counties should make themselves familiar with what is on their local ballot. The City of Midway is running a $5 million-dollar open space bond, but a handful of city residents did not receive the correct ballot. Carolyn Murray has this:
Election day is next Tuesday and most Utahns have by now received their ballots in the mail. Some Midway residents received the incorrect ballot last week. It did not have the option to cast their vote on the $5 million-dollar open space bond.
Wasatch County Clerk, Brent Titcomb said the mistake was made due to annexation maps that were not submitted to the state elections office. He said the mistake is fixed and all those residents should now have correct ballots.
“So, there were a few annexations and in the system you have to send a map to the state and in the system it updates the voter registration lists. And so, we thought we did that but apparently it didn’t go through. So, there are 17 voters in these areas.”
KPCW received some reports of voters who have not received ballots yet. Titcomb said they have not purged any names from the voting roles in Wasatch County. He said its common practice to combine duplicate names and birthdates, but no other names have been removed from the county voter lists.
“I’m sure that there are people that don’t have them but there’s not a pattern or anything big happening but, they can call our office and we can help each one.”
Justin Lee is the Director of Elections with the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office and said there can be errors made on ballots, so he encourages people to know what issues they should be voting on.
“Part of what’s on the ballot is knowing what’s on it and becoming educated about that. You know, sometimes for human failure or sometimes it comes from the printing company or something. You know there are some errors on ballots so we always appreciate eagle-eyed voters getting a ballot and realizing that there’s an issue with it, perhaps they were sent the wrong ballot. Perhaps the printer put the wrong ballot in the envelope and then letting the county know, you know, I’ve got an issue here and I want to make sure I am voting on the issues I should be voting on.”
Lee said people can make mistakes and as the state grows into the new system of Mail in Voting, they will have kinks to work out.
“Over the years, unfortunately as we are growing into the Vote-By-Mail, we have seen a few issues with people getting the wrong ballot. Like I say, I can think of a couple of issues where it wasn’t the County Clerk, in fact it was the printer who prints the ballots. It was a mistake. They put the wrong ballots in the envelopes and they got to people. And so, there have been a few issues, some growing pains here or there but as a whole, the counties are getting better at it and making sure they have the checks in place.”
Titcomb said there is only one place to vote in person in Wasatch County. Early voting starts on Tuesday, the 30th. Go to the Wasatch County Offices at 25 North Main in Heber to vote in person or call Wasatch County Clerk, Brent Titcomb at 435-657-3191.
Go to KPCW.org to read the Midway Open Space Bond ballot language.
Midway Open space Bond Language:
Shall Midway City, Utah (the “City”), be authorized to issue General Obligation Bonds in an amount not to exceed Five Million Dollars ($5,000,000) (the “Bonds”) for the purpose of partnering with willing landowners, private organizations, land preservation foundations, governmental agencies and private donors, all at the discretion of the City Council, to pay all or a portion of the costs to preserve open space (as open space is defined and is consistent with the Midway City General Plan and as permitted by the laws of the State of Utah) and related improvements, within the proposed annexation boundaries of the City as established in the land use map of the City dated December 13, 2017, including but not limited to acquisition of land, development rights, conservation easements, maintenance of use agreements, or related start-up expenses; said Bonds to be due and payable in not to exceed twenty-one (21) years from the date of issuance of the Bonds.
