Weber State early voting to open to Davis residents

OGDEN — Early voting on the Ogden campus of Weber State University will be open to students, faculty, staff and all registered voters of Weber and Davis counties.

"Voters from one county have never been able to vote in person in another county before," said Gary Johnson, associate professor of political science and philosophy at Weber State. "This is a major step forward in the voting process."

Weber and Davis election officials are working with the Weber's political science department and the Weber Student Achievement program to bring early voting to campus for the November election.

Early voting will be available on campus on Oct. 26 and 27 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Davis County Clerk/Auditor Steve Rawlings said making cross-county voting work was just a matter of communication. The plan got the go-ahead from both the Davis County Attorney's Office and the Utah State Elections Office.

Both counties use electronic voting machines for early voting, and running the election requires programming the machines to accept registered voters from each county. It will also require sorting voters who come to the polls for early voting.

If successful, early voting could be expanded to other counties. Utah has been making steps in expanding voters' ability to cast ballots since 2006.

Early voting allows residents to go to voting centers during the two weeks before an election rather than their normal election day polling locations. In most cases, the early voting has to take place in the county where a voter resides.

The partnership between the counties and university is also seeking poll workers from the student body.

Becoming a poll worker requires a short training session. Elections training in Davis County will run from Oct. 11-26 and will be conducted in Davis County. Training for Weber County will be held on campus at the Student Union Ballroom October 18-20.

Prospective poll workers should contact their county clerk's office. Applications are often available online.

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