Vote of confidence: Utah officials dismiss study on election readiness

State and local election officials discount the findings of a New York University study released last week that gave Utah low marks for its plans to deal with possible voting problems in the upcoming election.

The study, conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law, gave Utah its lowest rating in three of four categories covering issues relating to election anomalies. Utah's aggregate ranking put it among the worst states in the country on evaluations of polling place contingency plans, requirements for sound ballot accounting and reconciliation, having a voter-verifiable paper record and conducting a post-election audit.

Utah received a satisfactory evaluation in the voter-verifiable paper record, but joined Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia on the group's unfavorable list.

Joe Demma, chief of staff for Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert, who oversees elections, dismissed the study as poorly executed and said it was the worst he'd seen in his tenure.

"It appears to us that what they did was take a cursory look at our statutes and decided if it wasn't in our election code, then we must not be doing it," Demma said. "Nothing could be further from the truth ... and they didn't even bother to read the documents we provided that outlined how things are done here."

One specific criticism offered by the study stated that Utah lacked a mandate to ensure that paper ballots were available at polling locations in the event that electronic voting machines failed. Demma said that was not the case, a statement confirmed by a cursory sampling of county clerks.

Iron County Clerk David Yardley said all 15 polling locations in his southern Utah jurisdiction are well stocked with emergency paper ballots. Davis County election director Pat Beckstead said the same, and outlined a multi-level contingency plan that includes plans for emergency polling site relocations, power failures and machine breakdowns.

"We have backup plans for evacuations, sites chosen for moving polling if we need to and even a plan to change our election headquarters from the courthouse to another location," Beckstead said. "Electrical generators will be on standby and can be moved to any of our 84 locations in the event of a local power failure."

On the areas of ballot reconciliation and post-election audits, Demma also found fault with the study's conclusions. He said the group failed to recognize that even though poll workers are not legally obligated to fill out and return forms that reconcile the number of voters who sign in with the number of votes cast, it is done as a matter of course at every polling location throughout the state.