Utah’s early voting numbers released by Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson showed statewide returns at 46.2 percent.
As of Monday, the highest returns, at 65.7 percent, can be found in Grand County with 65.7 percent, while the lowest, at just 35.1 percent, are in Sanpete County, the rural area home of Gov. Spencer Cox.
While those low numbers are a bit startling, officials explained how they don’t tell the real story.
“A ballot in the system, for like tracking your ballot, does not register until you scan that barcode and then you verify the signature,” said Sanpete County Clerk Linda Christiansen.
Christiansen says the county’s early numbers will go way up by Monday night.
“We only have six of us that are full-time signature verifiers, and the problem is four of my staff members are certified but we had non-stop in-person voting all last week,” she explained.
On Monday, county ballot counters were busy with the task at hand.
“I’ve converted our commission room into an election processing room,” Christensen said. “So we keep all of our ballots in locked cages. My tabulation room is behind this locked glass door. So, people can observe, they can observe, but can’t be in our room while we are tabulating.