SALT LAKE CITY — Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson put pen to paper and certified the results of the 2024 primary election.
At a brief meeting on Monday, state elections officials went over the results and answered questions from a man who arrived to observe. State law requires the Lt. Governor certify the results after counties do their own canvassing.
State elections officials answered questions at Monday's meeting from one man who inquired about canvass documents posted online. Then, Lt. Gov. Henderson signed the paper and it was over.
But there are still outstanding issues.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman told FOX 13 News on Monday his campaign has filed a petition with the Utah Supreme Court contesting the results of the primary election.
"I am contesting this as a citizen, as a candidate, and in my capacity as a Utah State Legislator," Lyman wrote in the petition to the Court shared with FOX 13 News. "I and the Lyman campaign have made all efforts to obtain election returns including Cast Vote Record (CVR), tabulator information, ballot images, tabulator tapes, and back up project databases for all 29 Utah Counties."
"The Lt. Governor has advised the counties to not provide these records. We believe that there are votes recorded in the various counties that would not stand up to a verification process. We cannot perform the verification process without access to these very basic records, none of which disclose personally identifiable information."
Lyman — who won the Republican state party convention nomination — lost the primary to Governor Spencer Cox by 37,525 votes, official election returns show. Cox gathered signatures to earn a spot on the ballot, as Utah law allows.
Lyman currently has a lawsuit against the state, seeking to obtain copies of signature packets collected by a number of political campaigns including Cox, U.S. Senate candidate Brad Wilson and Utah Attorney General candidate Derek Brown. Lyman's campaign has questioned whether the signatures were properly gathered.
A judge on Friday denied Lyman's request for a restraining order seeking to have that information handed over ahead of the canvass and said his "generalized allegations of harm to 'transparency' or 'integrity' in the primary election process are insufficiently vague." Still, the judge allowed Lyman's lawsuit to continue.
Congressional candidate Colby Jenkins can seek a recount now that the results are canvassed. He lost the 2nd Congressional District race by 214 votes to incumbent Congresswoman Celeste Maloy, according to official election results. But Jenkins is within the margin to ask for a recount under Utah law.
"Colby Jenkins has every right to ask for one," Lt. Gov. Henderson told reporters Monday. "Whether or not he does is up to him. We are prepared and the counties involved are prepared to restart that today."
Jenkins sued in federal court, seeking an injunction to block Monday's canvass to deal with an issue of postmarked ballots. He raised issues about voters who mailed their ballots — but they may have been sent to a U.S. Postal Service processing center outside Utah and not been postmarked until it was too late. Jenkins also sought a list of uncured ballots, which are ones with signature issues that voters may not have responded to messages from county clerks to come in and fix.
A federal judge rejected Jenkins' request, but Utah law may be changed to avoid such a situation with the postal service in the future. Utah law requires ballots be postmarked the day before Election Day.
"I do understand the policy behind tightening that down that the legislature had in past years, making sure people aren’t trying to vote or mail in their ballots after Election Day, after the polls close," Lt. Gov. Henderson said. "But I would be very open to the legislature looking at that. Also on the post office side, making sure we can coordinate better."
But the Lt. Governor said voters must also be vigilant in ensuring their ballots get in. County clerks mail them out several weeks before the election; Utah also offers early-voting locations and secure dropboxes to place them in. Lt. Gov. Henderson said if a voter waits until the last minute and wants to mail it? She recommends walking into a post office and ensuring the postal worker hand stamps the postmark on it.
Monday's canvass also yielded some interesting data points: Statewide voter turnout for the Republican primary was 47.65%, while multi-county Democratic primary voter turnout was 46.43%. Rich County had the highest voter turnout in Utah at 70.79%, while Utah County had the lowest turnout at 43.56%.
Read Phil Lyman's petition to the Utah Supreme Court here:
