GUNNISON, Utah — Utah's early voting numbers released by Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson showed statewide returns at 46.2 percent.
As of Monday, the highest returns, at 65.7 percent, can be found in Grand County with 65.7 percent, while the lowest, at just 35.1 percent, are in Sanpete County, the rural area home of Gov. Spencer Cox.
While those low numbers are a bit startling, officials explained how they don't tell the real story.
"A ballot in the system, for like tracking your ballot, does not register until you scan that barcode and then you verify the signature," said Sanpete County Clerk Linda Christiansen.
Christiansen says the county's early numbers will go way up by Monday night.
"We only have six of us that are full-time signature verifiers, and the problem is four of my staff members are certified but we had non-stop in-person voting all last week," she explained.
On Monday, county ballot counters were busy with the task at hand.
"I’ve converted our commission room into an election processing room," Christensen said. "So we keep all of our ballots in locked cages. My tabulation room is behind this locked glass door. So, people can observe, they can observe, but can’t be in our room while we are tabulating.
There is still time to get ballots in and counted, but Christensen advises voters to run to the post office and make sure to watch staff members postmark the ballot, which has be postmarked by Monday.
"Just make your vote count and get out there and vote!" she added.
Christensen said Utah's strict election process is one voters can trust.
"We have all glass windows around my office. We have cameras in all of the processing areas. We are as transparent as you can get," she promised.
While admitting Monday’s numbers were disappointing, Christensen said Sanpete County has a history of turning out to vote in a big way.
"I looked at the numbers from 2020 and Sanpete was 92 percent!" she exclaimed.
The county clerk believes they’ll get closer to meeting their mark by Tuesday.
"I just barely had poll workers go out and collect from our big boxes, which is Gunnison, Mount Pleasant, Ephraim, and Manti. We are right at the moment counting them," she said. "We’ll know more about how many were turned in over the weekend and see about maybe hitting that 60 percent at end of day today."
