Tech revolutionizing voting in Utah

In terms of technology and voting trends, this past election was a horse of an entirely different color, and there's no going back, polling analysts said at a recent post-election convention.

Assuming the role of Monday morning political quarterbacks, a panel of analysts delved into various election topics, including the future of Utah's political landscape, electronic ballots, local election upsets and something one BYU political science professor likes to call "The Palin Experiment."

The panel was part of the Roberts Post-Election Conference hosted at Brigham Young University.

As in economics and evolution, competition promotes strength in politics, said BYU political professor Quinn Monson. However, in terms of Utah politics, there's little competition to be found.

Ever since exit polling started in the early 1980s, the overwhelming majority of Utahns have identified themselves as Republicans. As a result, it's difficult for a Democratic candidate to win an election here.

"It's not healthy for the state as a whole," Monson said.

Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert said he doesn't understand how a fiscally prudent state that spends money on education, improves teacher salaries, uses capital to improve transportation and makes one of the largest tax cuts in state history can be considered unhealthy.

"What do you want to change about that?" he asked Monson.

Monson said he didn't think anything is necessarily wrong with Utah's political layout, but he said weak political competition breeds complicity among incumbents who don't have to worry about re-elections.

"They have no fear of retribution from the voters.…In a sense, they often feel insulated from these pressures," he said.

When an incumbent faces a strong challenger, he or she works harder to earn constituents' votes, Monson said. And though the state's current political landscape is predominantly Republican, Monson said that could change in the next 20 years.

Already, Monson said, analysts are observing Republican voters splitting their ballot for some Democratic candidates. In the recent election, more than 30 percent of voters who identified themselves as "strong Republicans" voted for Democratic U.S. Rep. Jim Matheson.

Monson also said political analysts have observed an effort to rebrand the Utah Democratic Party as more moderate, which could encourage conversion and mobilization.