GOP to get '02 election files

Salt Lake County Republicans have pried the lid from sealed 2002 general election ballots.

The District Attorney's Office planned to turn over computer files of all 226,022 ballots to the county Republicans on Friday. The release was requested through the Government Records and Access Management Act (GRAMA).

The actual ballots are not being provided. They are permanently sealed in accordance with state law. But the computer printouts are exact replicas and will show the punches on each ballot.

The GRAMA request, made last week, followed failed attempts by county Republicans to look at the ballots, including an aborted effort by some Salt Lake County Council members to count them by hand.

The ballot-inspection effort has been driven primarily by Republican Keith Prows. He has publicly stated his loss to County Clerk Sherrie Swensen in the 2002 general election did not make sense because most other Republican candidates easily won their races.

Repeated phone calls to Salt Lake County Republican Chairman John Solomon were not returned Friday morning.

Swensen, who initially supported the council's hand-count request but backed away after being advised it probably was illegal, said turning over the ballots would prove what she has maintained since Election Day — nothing illicit, illegal or immoral took place.

To further prove the accuracy of the ballot counting, Swensen scheduled public testing of the election tabulation software system for 2 p.m. today. The system is used in 22 of Utah's 29 counties.

Whether the replicated ballots or the computer test halts the continued assault on her credibility by "a small group of people with an agenda" remains to be seen, she said.

"I can't imagine that this wouldn't satisfy everything," Swensen said. "This is only a few people, not the general public, and I don't know that you could ever satisfy them."

Salt Lake County Democratic Chairwoman Nichole Adams said even though the electronic ballot files are now available to the public, she doubts the party will want them. The Democrats have not disputed any results, and there would be nothing on the ballots that could provide information beyond what is already included in precinct and canvassing reports, she said.

Deputy District Attorney Karl Hendrickson said the actual ballots are protected by state law to prevent tampering or damage, but the electronic files can be made public because they do not contain personal information.

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