Issues with mail-in voting continue to raise questions about the integrity of U.S. elections, leaving some Utah residents frustrated and thinking their recent votes may have been mistakenly invalidated.
All Utah residents with valid voter registrations are automatically Vote by Mail For each primary and general election, ballots are mailed out and must be postmarked by a certain deadline to be counted. For the primary election held at the end of last month, that deadline was June 24.
“Why are our ballots crossing state lines? Where is the chain of custody with Utah election officials? Why are they going to Las Vegas, being held for days, then coming back across state lines?”
But some Utahns allege that even though they submitted their mail-in ballots on time, officials later refused to count them because they were incorrectly postmarked June 25. Part of the problem, they say, is that the U.S. Postal Service sent all those ballots across the state line to Las Vegas, Nevada, for processing. As a result, many mail-in ballots were allegedly improperly dated by the Las Vegas facility, which critics call “a false flag.”Las Vegas cancellations”
Moreover, some officials have evidence that votes are valid: Iron County Clerk John Whitaker claimed to have personally seen several invalidated hand ballots (mail-in ballots that were submitted to a postal center and then quickly postmarked by postal workers at the voter’s request) with postmarks as early as June 20.
“Because all mail must make the maddening 340 mile round trip to the sorting center in Las Vegas, it is highly likely that the stamp was applied after midnight, despite being in mail circulation on the 24th. This is unacceptable!!” Whitaker said in an email to the USPS.
As a result, only 14 of the 429 allegedly late mail-in ballots from Iron County will be counted in the final vote tally, Whitaker argued.
Those votes are especially important in the Republican primary for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, which is being contested between incumbent Republican Rep. Celeste Malloy, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, and challenger Colby Jenkins. As of Friday, Malloy held a slim lead of 314 votes out of about 107,000 cast.
Jenkins estimates he needs a net gain of about 30 more votes to trigger a recount. In Washington County, which backed Jenkins by nearly 20 percent, there are about 350 ballots sitting “waiting for postmark,” he told The Blaze News.
“Why are our ballots crossing state lines? Where are they going to be stored by Utah election officials, dare I say, to Las Vegas, where they’re kept for days and then come back across state lines?” he continued.
In addition to the allegedly late ballots, Jenkins claims that over 500 ballots in Washington County were deemed “uncorrected” and not counted, primarily because signatures did not match. Jenkins believes that the 500 uncorrected ballots combined with the 350 “late” ballots could be more than enough votes to force a recount.
Jenkins isn’t the only one who believes Utah’s current system disenfranchises voters: Iron County Commissioner Paul Cozzens has heard similar complaints from his constituents.
“I talked to all my friends and they were like, ‘I mailed my ballot on the 22nd, 23rd or 24th,'” Cozzens told The Blaze News. “I had friends text me and say, ‘I dropped my ballot off in person at the post office just before 4 o’clock.'”
Cozzens said he had received five sworn statements from people making similar allegations, which he called “highly credible.”
Iron County commissioners were scheduled to vote to certify the election results Monday afternoon, but Cozzens says: “I cannot in good conscience do so on Monday when hundreds of voters will have obeyed state law and their votes will not be counted,” he said.
As promised, Sheriff Cozzens voted against certifying the results at Monday’s meeting, but Chairman Mike Bleick voted in favor of certification, leaving the casting vote to Sheriff Kenneth Carpenter, deputy for Chairman Marilyn Wood, who was unable to attend the meeting.
Carpenter asked that the final vote be postponed for 24 hours so the county could seek further guidance from the state Attorney General’s Office. The motion was granted.
Carpenter said he was concerned about the ballots that were allegedly misdated, telling The Blaze News it creates a “tough situation” and a “moral dilemma,” but added that he is bound by the law.
“I think the law is very clear that mail-in ballots have to be dated the day before Election Day,” he told The Blaze News, “and if they’re not dated before Election Day, then they can’t be counted.”
Carpenter urged frustrated voters who feel they may have been disenfranchised to contact their state legislators and ask them to change the law. “As elected officials at the local level, we can’t do this alone,” he said.
“I don’t want this to be an ongoing issue for the state of Utah or Iron County.”
For now, much to Cozzens’ disappointment, it appears Irony County’s election results are scheduled to be certified on Tuesday.
“The right to vote was won by the blood of hundreds of thousands of people who stood before us. To silence their voices would disparage their sacrifice and undermine the democratic process. Therefore, I will not vote to certify this election until there is a clear path forward without silencing the voices of those who did their duty and mailed their ballot on time,” he said in a statement.
The Blaze News reached out to Malloy’s campaign and several Washington County officials for comment but did not receive a response.
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