For more than a decade, Utahns have seen poor voter turnout in many primary elections, yet little is being done to correct the lack of citizen participation in picking political-party nominees, observers say.

Research by the Utah Elections Office shows that since a high turnout of nearly 50 percent in a September primary in 1992, and since the Legislature's move from a September to a June primary, no primary election across the state has seen more than a 20 percent turnout.

The June 27 primary this year saw 13.39 percent of voters participate across the state, the state elections office found. In some locales, turnout was better, although turnout was poor in Wasatch Front counties.

For some political analysts, like Hinckley Institute of Politics executive director Kirk Jowers, the low primary turnout is a scandal — and one that should be addressed by the Legislature.

But for others, like Utah Democratic Party executive director Todd Taylor, the primary turnout in many cases "is just bad, bad math" and few changes are needed. "Garfield County had nearly 50 percent turnout in this year's primary," Taylor noted.

Still, Utahns don't much like the current June primary, according to a new Dan Jones & Associates poll of 900 registered voters, conducted for the Deseret Morning News and KSL-TV. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percent.

Jones found that 14 percent of those surveyed who didn't vote in the primary said they skipped the election because the Utah Republican Party, which historically has more primaries than do Democrats, requires that a primary voter be a registered Republican to get a ballot. Six percent of those surveyed said they're registered in a party other than the Republican Party and so skipped their local GOP primary contest.

So, around 40 percent of primary-election skippers didn't cast a ballot because the primary was held in June, or they didn't want to declare themselves Republicans to get a primary GOP ballot.

Thirty-eight percent told Jones they just were not interested in the primary candidates so didn't bother to vote. And 28 percent gave other excuses on why they didn't vote in the primary, Jones found.

"Isn't it sad that 38 percent said they weren't interested in the primary races," said Gigi Brandt, president of the Utah League of Women Voters. One of the league's goals is greater participation in elections.