From Deseret News archives:
State says 14 illegals may have cast ballot
Elections director Michael Cragun said he wants the information so county clerks can look at it and take appropriate action.
"If we find we've got someone who is not a citizen who has registered, . . . someone at the polling place can challenge their right to cast a ballot," he said. "As far as someone proven to be a noncitizen who did cast a ballot, that would be referred to the county attorney for prosecution."
Fraudulent voting is a third-degree felony punishable by a fine of up to $1,000 and up to five years in prison.
The survey, released in February by the Office of the Legislative Auditor General, revealed that 383 of those who appear to be undocumented immigrants who were issued a Utah driver's license or state ID card also registered to vote.
According to state voter registration records, 14 of the 383 actually cast a ballot, though their citizenship status wasn't confirmed.
The survey was introduced along with legislation, which is now law, replacing undocumented immigrants' drivers' licenses with driving privilege cards, which can't be used as identification, and requiring two separate forms of proof of address, along with identification, at the Driver License Division.
While lawmakers had originally said they'd seek a more in-depth audit, Sen. Curt Bramble, R-Provo, who sponsored the legislation, has since said the audit served its purpose by identifying a problem he said his legislation was designed to solve. Bramble has said any follow-up should by handled by state investigative agencies.
The Department of Public Safety was moving forward with efforts to find out why thousands of expiration notices for state ID cards issued to undocumented individuals were returned undeliverable.
Nanette Rolfe, director of the Driver License Division of the Department of Public Safety, said the notices are being evaluated to find out if a follow-up investigation is needed to the investigation referenced in the survey. That investigation suggested that "Utah has become a portal through which undocumented aliens can obtain a widely accepted form of ID."
It appeared that many people had obtained both a driver's license and a state ID card, Rolfe said. As drivers' licenses expire over the next year, the names and addresses on undeliverable expiration notices will be checked against the nearly 30,000 returned expiration notices for state ID cards, she said.
"That's what we're looking at now to determine if we have another problem or the same problem," Rolfe said.
