Commissioner says Utah County Clerk’s vote-tracking method is ‘voter intimidation’ | News, Sports, Work

When Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson publicly disclosed the lawmaker’s voting method, it prompted the county attorney to launch an investigation and call on his predecessor to recuse himself from his duties this election cycle. Now, some voters who voted by mail are questioning whether their ballots will be counted.

The controversy began when Davidson, who asked voters to favor drop boxes and in-person voting over mail-in ballots, said he watched officials vote and even called names. Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, for example, did not stamp his ballot in the last election, Davidson said Deseret News.

Utah County Commissioner Amelia Powers Gardner, also the previous Utah County Clerk, called tracking that information “voter intimidation.”

“This is incredibly abnormal. This is not only abnormal, it is inappropriate. He should be concerned about counting the votes and making sure that every person who is eligible to vote has the opportunity to do so in whatever way works best for them,” Powers Gardner told the Utah News Dispatch.

However, Davidson defends his claims, arguing that voting methods are not private information.

“Anyone can walk up to the box and watch who drops their mail (ballot) into the box,” Davidson said Thursday. “This whole controversy is completely made up. It’s just Michael McKell trying to make a drama out of a non-drama. This is public information.”

McKell said it’s not just him, as Davidson has reached out to other lawmakers, such as Rep. Stephanie Gritzius, R-Eagle Mountain, to tell them he knows their voting methods.

“The other thing that really bothers me is that my election record is private. At first he can’t reveal that I voted at all. This is a violation of the statute,” McKell said. “And I don’t think that can be a violation of the statute. I believe that this is black and white, a violation of the statute. He cannot reveal that I voted at all because my electoral file is closed.”

Davidson disagreed. He said that anyone can track certain voter information, such as the type of ballot and the date, using “Voted for subscription.” He added that he only monitored the voting method of only a few politicians. According to his comments, Davidson bases his decisions on who he follows based on personal interactions.

“It’s just a few people who are vocal about me not putting stamps or paying for postage,” Davidson said.

Using a ballot-sorting machine, his office keeps track of the number associated with the envelopes that contain the ballots, he explained.

“When his ballot came in, our system logged it as ‘Mike McKell voted on a certain date,’ and it tracks how they returned the ballot,” Davidson said. “I never saw the ballot, I never opened the ballot, I never pulled the ballot. My employees do it.”

Targeting politicians with whom Davidson disagrees, McKell said, makes matters worse.

“It’s almost a threat that he made. He will see my ballot as a way to subpoena me and hold me accountable,” McKell said. “I use a legal method of voting. The vast majority of Utahns support mail-in voting, and he wants to call me out for exercising my constitutional right.”

McKell was also skeptical of the process described by Davidson.

“I’m not sure he didn’t look at how I voted, too,” he said. “I talked to some people about the process in the election commission. It takes a lot of work to isolate my newsletter. Aaron Davidson misrepresents this as a simple process. Just pay $15 to get this data. It gives you aggregated data, but it took a lot of work to isolate and individualize my newsletter.”

Although Davidson has denied any wrongdoing, he received a call from the district attorney’s office to inquire about the incident, which he said will not result in any criminal charges.

The Utah County District Attorney’s office confirmed it received a report that Davidson tracked the voting method of some elected officials.

“The Utah County District Attorney’s Office is conducting a preliminary investigation into this report and is reviewing applicable laws to determine if any laws were violated,” a spokesperson wrote in a statement. “The investigation is expected to take some time.”

The results of this preliminary investigation will determine whether further excavations are necessary and whether the Utah County Prosecutor’s Office will continue to conduct them or turn them over to another agency.

But in Powers Gardner’s view, the potential violation of elected officials’ privacy rights should still be investigated, especially in an environment where the election is under intense scrutiny. But there may not be time to conduct a thorough investigation before Election Day on Tuesday.

“That’s one of the reasons I asked him to recuse himself from this election, to allow himself to step aside, to allow the professionals in the office to focus on getting the job done,” she said. “And then that would give reassurance to people who are nervous that their rights have been violated that things will be done in a non-politically neutral manner in the office.”

On Thursday, Davidson defended himself, saying that he saw no reason to recuse himself from his duties.

Mail-in ballots will be counted with or without a stamp, Utah County Clerk says

After the controversy, Powers Gardner said some voters in the district contacted her about whether their mail-in ballots would be discriminated against.

Utah County does not prepay for mailing ballots. But the Postal Service will return them even if they’re missing stamps because there are federal laws that prohibit taxes. This includes Utah County.

Davidson said Thursday that the votes will be counted without postage. However, he advised residents to pay $0.73 per stamp “for convenience” and leave the mailing free for those who really need it. According to him, about 75% of voters who voted by mail stamp their ballots.

“If you can afford it, why raise the cost of running an election and make other taxpayers pay for your convenience?” he said.

Powers Gardner believes that the distinction should not be made.

“It doesn’t matter how you return your ballot. It doesn’t matter if you’re sick that day, if you’re busy, if you’re a single mother working two jobs, or if you’re an elderly person who’s housebound,” she said. “Whether or not you can find a stamp, you still have the right to vote, and you should have that right, and the clerk shouldn’t discriminate or divide your votes because of that.”

Utah County residents will take a long time to regain trust in the office, she said. She herself is on the verge of it.

“I haven’t returned my ballot yet and I told someone this morning that I don’t know if I should put it in the box to avoid being on his list because I actually want my vote to count,” she said. should I mail this to see if he’s trying to embarrass me because I’ve heard he’s been harassing other people and I think it’s voter intimidation.’

However, both Powers Gardner and McKell advised voters to keep an eye on their ballots to make sure they were counted.

McKell also questioned Davidson’s neutrality because the clerk posted a letter on social media calling for Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson to be held accountable after a highly contested gubernatorial primary that he said The Salt Lake Tribuneset fire to supporters of candidate Phil Lyman. On social media, some Lyman supporters called for Henderson’s execution, which lawmakers, including McKell, condemned.

“I trust our election system, but this is really hard for me because we really have a clerk who is politicizing the election,” McKell said. “I agree with Commissioner Gardner that he should recuse himself. His actions show clear bias.”

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