SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court has agreed to hear congressional candidate Colby Jenkins' challenge to the GOP primary election results.
The state's top court has scheduled an emergency hearing Friday in Jenkins' petition contesting the primary that saw him lose by 176 votes to incumbent Republican congresswoman Celeste Maloy. Jenkins and his attorneys allege more than 1,000 votes were not counted that should have been.
Jenkins sued every county clerk in the 2nd Congressional District arguing that many voters legitimately dropped their ballots in the mail before Utah's primary election deadline (the day before Election Day). However, those ballots were picked up and sent to an out-of-state U.S. Postal Service processing center where they were postmarked after the legal deadline.
He is asking the justices to order those ballots to be counted in an effort that could overturn his loss to Maloy for the Republican nomination for 2nd Congressional District.
The out-of-state ballot postmark issue is something that Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson, herself a defendant in the lawsuit, has told reporters she would be open to having the Utah State Legislature address in the future. However, she implored voters to ensure their ballots are postmarked and said they could have done so by going into their local post offices and ensuring it was hand-stamped or utilizing secure dropboxes that county clerks have set up all across the state.
What the justices of the Utah Supreme Court decide could upend the already dramatic GOP primary. The race between Jenkins and Maloy was so close it fell within the legal margins for a recount (which led to Jenkins losing by only 176 votes). There was a technological issue that emerged in two counties that briefly delayed that recount. Jenkins previously filed legal challenges to gain access to lists of uncured ballots where voters were contacted by county election workers to remedy an issue to ensure their vote was counted. That effort was rejected by a judge.
Jenkins is not the only Republican contesting the primary election. Acting as his own lawyer, gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman has filed a challenge with the Utah Supreme Court seeking to have Governor Spencer Cox removed from office and other Republican primary winners removed from the November ballot. Lyman's petition raises questions about the validity of signatures some GOP candidates gathered to earn a spot on the primary ballot.
The justices have not yet decided if they will hear Lyman's legal challenge, nor have they treated it with the same urgency. A docket entry shows the Court has scheduled a review of his petition in September.
