Teen delegate is officially eligible to vote

PROVO — Utah County's GOP race continued its scrappy cycle right up to the eve of today's voting for legislative candidates. Party members were forced to assemble Friday to decide the eligibility of a 17-year-old delegate in a district facing a tight race for a Senate seat.

Jackie deGaston, who is challenging incumbent and Senate Majority Leader Curt Bramble, filed an official objection to the qualification of a delegate in her district. The delegate, Hannah Lockhart, is the daughter of her opponent's longtime friend Stan Lockhart, Utah Republican Party chairman.

DeGaston didn't protest the relationship — which she believes will obviously sway Hannah Lockhart's vote — but she believes party rules disqualify the 17-year-old girl as a delegate because she was elected from a precinct where she did not yet live.

The Credentials Committee assigned to tackle the issue disagreed and Hannah Lockhart will be allowed to vote in this morning's election, according to Stan Lockhart.

"I heard it through the grapevine that my daughter is still eligible," he said.

The Lockharts refused a requested interview with their daughter Friday night.

The committee used a 2006 scenario as a sort of precedent for its decision, citing an instance in which a delegate moved to a residence outside his voting district after he was elected but still voted, according to Utah County Republican Party chairwoman Marian Monnahan.

The decision may have surprised some party officials, but it was the meeting itself that took everyone off guard, including the media.

In a widely disseminated press release this week, deGaston told the news outlets she was going to officially retract her complaint because she had "little expectation of winning anyway, and she (Hannah) is a minor child of 17 years who should not have to bear the brunt of her parents' and their friends' political maneuverings."

The message made it to the media, but never made it to party leaders. "She didn't show up for the meeting and never called," Monnahan told the Deseret News after the meeting.

"Since she informed everyone else of her intentions I thought she was going to at least send us an e-mail. She didn't. So we had no choice but go forward."

The committee was made up of members outside Bramble's district, except one, Monnahan said, "to keep it as impartial as possible." Power players such as Bramble; his wife, Susie Bramble, the county party secretary; and Hannah Lockhart's parents did not attend the meeting.

"Actually, it was I who was really on trial here," Monnahan said. "I was the one who told her (Hannah Lockhart) she was still eligible."

The teenager knew she would move between the time delegates were selected and the convention. Monnahan told Lockhart to run for a delegate position in the precinct where she would live at the time of the convention.

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E-mail: jhancock@desnews.com