HURRICANE — In last week’s Hurricane City Council meeting, the majority of civic leaders voted in favor of hand-counting ballots cast within their jurisdiction for the next election. Whether election officials in Washington County and the state of Utah will allow the request remains unclear.
After a close call in last year’s race for Utah’s House District 72, the council asked Hurricane City Attorney Dayton Hall about the feasibility of such a request.
On Thursday, he presented the council with three options regarding the city’s existing Inter-local Cooperation Agreement for Election Services with Washington County.
The first would be to hold the upcoming 2024 elections with no changes to the agreement.
The council could also vote to terminate the contract with the county and assume responsibility for all election duties, which would include printing, mailing signature verification and hand-counting the ballots.
“Being this close to a potential primary race, there are several concerns with this option,” the council was advised in a pre-meeting packet. “The election requirements are hyper-technical and will require substantial City resources to ensure we comply with the state code.”
The council ultimately voted 4-1 in favor of the third option; to seek permission to take possession of ballots cast in Hurricane boundaries and hand-count them at the Washington County election offices in St. George.
“The direction of the council was to amend the current agreement allowing the county to purchase the paper ballots, envelopes, print, mail and verify signatures,” Mayor Nanette Billings emailed St. George News after the meeting. “Then, the city will count the ballots at the Washington county building.”
Councilman Kevin Thomas told those in attendance of an audit he attended regarding the 2022 hand-count in the local election for Utah’s House of Representatives. Rep. Joseph Elison won the seat by seven votes.
Thomas stated although he could see an electronic image of whom the person voted for, and another image showing how the machine counted that vote, there was no final tally given for the small batches tested during the audit.
“You have to count all the ballots,” he told the council. “Or it’s a selection, not an election.”
Five members from a group of activists named Southern Utahns for Transparency also gave statements of support to the council during public comments for addressing the issue. They applauded Thomas’ statement.
Councilman Doug Heideman — the council’s lone “no” vote — told those in attendance of a demonstration given by election officials the week prior to the audit that Thomas attended in 2022. In his opinion, Utah’s elections are already secure due to state regulations and county election staff.
“I was really impressed with how secure it was and how many security steps are in place,” he said.
Before the final vote, Hall responded to a question regarding the legality of the request by stating it is not against any state regulations to propose a change to Washington County seeking to amend the city’s current agreement for election services.
Jackson Murphy, public information officer for Lt. Gov. Diedre Henderson, told St. George News he was aware of the meeting and would respond to questions after gathering more information. Washington County elections clerk Melanie Abplanalp is out of town until Monday, May 1.
Hall is currently working on the proposal to submit to the county’s election officials, Billings said, although she has not seen the final draft.
“This would be in every election,” she stated. “Or until the City Council of Hurricane changes the agreement with the county.”
Editor’s note: This article has been edited to correct the event attended by Councilman Doug Heideman was a demonstration held by Washington County election officials the week prior to the audit attended by Councilman Kevin Thomas. Heideman was not in attendance at the 2022 audit.
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