PROVO — Less than two months after an embarrassing election foul-up that left 33,000 votes uncounted in the initial tally, Utah County officials want to bolster the role of the county's election coordinator.

County commissioners downplay the move, saying they simply changed the job description of the person responsible for overseeing the county's elections.

During a meeting Tuesday at county-government headquarters, the panel of elected leaders insisted the move had little to do with the computer glitch that marred the November election.

A computer-programming error was the reason punch-card reading machines did not count some 33,000 straight-party votes Nov. 2.

The machines added up the total number of ballots but didn't forward votes to the candidate columns.

The Deseret Morning News first reported the uneven totals on Nov. 4.

At the time, the unofficial computer tally showed that 144,423 Utah County residents cast ballots — but that only 110,143 voted in the presidential race.

Undervotes are normal since many voters choose only to vote in some, but not all, races.

But they are rarely as pronounced in a presidential race as appeared to be the case before the recount in Utah County, known to be a very politically conservative region.

After Utah County officials reran the punch cards, the results showed 145,769 ballots were cast in Utah County, with 143,797 including a presidential vote.

The recount didn't change the outcome of any races, however.

Kris Swensen has been in charge of overseeing the county's elections. She is leaving her post with the county this month to become an election coordinator for Salt Lake County.

Swensen has been in charge of hiring election judges, lining up voting equipment and ensuring voter registration goes as smoothly as possible.

Officials say it was not Swensen's job to determine why the pre-election test runs on the computers did not signal the undervote problem.

Ultimately, said Commissioner Jerry Grover, election-night success — or failure — fall to the elected county clerk-auditor, Kim Jackson. Swensen reported to Jackson.

That will still be the case, Grover said Tuesday as the commission discussed expanding the duties of the election coordinator.

Still, employees say the clerk's office is woefully understaffed. Swensen said the county has only two people to handle election returns compared to 13 in the larger Salt Lake County, which has 13.

If approved, the coordinator would take on the supervision of issuing passports and marriage licenses as well as watching over election details. In return, the two individuals responsible for the passports and marriage licenses could be called in to help with elections as needed.

The commissioners did not approve the job expansion Tuesday but decided to look at the overall staffing plan and other options before they finalize the proposal.

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Contributing: Associated Press

E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com