SALT LAKE CITY — Congressional candidate Colby Jenkins is seeking a recount in his close race for the Republican nomination against Congresswoman Celeste Maloy.
But he tells FOX 13 News he is also seeking a petition to the Utah Supreme Court over uncured ballots, as well as uncounted ballots that were postmarked outside Utah past the deadline.
The Jenkins campaign on Monday filed formal notice with the state elections office that it would request a recount. Jenkins lost the primary election by 214 votes to Maloy. Because it is within the margin, Jenkins is legally entitled to a recount.
State elections officials said it will take up to a week to conduct the recount as all county clerks must pull the ballots from the recent election and tabulate them again.
But Jenkins told FOX 13 News on Monday that his campaign will also petition the Utah Supreme Court to address the ballot postmark issue. Jenkins argues that a large number of ballots ended up being discarded because they were postmarked past the deadline, even though voters insisted they dropped them in the mailbox before the deadline. Jenkins has argued it is because they were shipped to U.S. Postal Service processing centers outside the state.
"What a tragedy it’s affecting my personal race for sure. But more importantly? I’m being hired to solve problems, to lead," he said Monday. "Not to be a rubber stamp and shrug my shoulders and say 'Well, we’ll fix it next time and that doesn’t happen.' We’re wanting to make sure we fight for all legal votes to be counted."
Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson, the state's top elections officer, said she was open to having the legislature tweak laws to address the postmark issue. But she also urged voters to ensure their ballots were postmarked by walking into a U.S. Post Office or taking them to a secure dropbox or county clerk's office.
