Change to early voting law stalls in House

A bill that sailed through the Senate last week stalled in the House Government Operations Committee on Monday over a dispute between county and state government.

SB24, sponsored by Sen. Peter Knudson, R-Brigham City, would remove the requirement in a 2007 state law that one early voting location be set up in each Senate district within Salt Lake County and give county election officials more flexibility to decide where to place them.

Committee members voted to hold the bill, which was approved unanimously by the Senate last week, pending changes. It will be considered again Tuesday afternoon.

Chief Deputy Salt Lake County Clerk Jason Yocom said his office would like to place early voting locations based on expected voter turnout around the county.

"The Senate districts limit where we can put the voting locations," Yocom said. "We would like to have the same discretion that every other county in the state has."

There are 12 Senate districts in Salt Lake County — 10 located entirely within county boundaries and two others located partially within the county.

Yocom said the electronic voting equipment used at each location is costly and that the proposed legislation would result in a much more efficient use of that equipment.

He said it costs the county about $100,000 per election to place an early voting location in each of the 12 Senate districts and that during the 2008 primary election, the first time the new requirements were in effect, only about 2,000 county residents voted — at a cost to the county of about $50 per vote cast.

"You are the losing the efficiency you gained by having early voting," Yocom said.

Arie Van De Graaff, a research analyst with the Utah Association of Counties, said he strongly supported making the change because the current system does a poor job of allocating where polling places should be.

"The original law anticipated fixing a problem that we didn't think existed in the first place," Van De Graaff said.

Rep. Ron Bigelow, R-West Valley, described the bill as a typical push for more local authority.

"I understand how that is always the desire of local governments and usually there is a reason why it's not done," Bigelow said. "When there is a problem, usually people don't go to the county clerk to get it resolved. They come to the Legislature. We get the complaints, so we take action."

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