Ballots await processing at the Salt Lake County Government Center in Salt Lake City as votes are cast in Utah’s primary election on Tuesday, June 25, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
While conducting a limited review of Utah’s 2024 primary election processes, Utah State Auditor John Dougall issued a letter Tuesday concluding he’s found nothing major amiss when it comes to signature gathering — one of two ways candidates can qualify for Utah’s primary ballot.
The auditor’s office analyzed more than 1,200 randomly-sampled signatures collected by campaigns for three statewide candidates (Utah Gov. Spencer Cox for governor, Rep. John Curtis for Utah’s U.S. Senate seat, and Derek Brown for attorney general). Auditors concluded, based on their review, that all three candidates likely properly qualified for the ballot.
“Based on the statistical sampling of validated signatures within our primary population of validated signatures for voters with privacy protection, as well as consideration of the secondary population of uncounted signatures, we conclude that it is statistically likely each of these candidates met the statutory threshold of required valid signatures,” the auditor’s office wrote in a news release issued Tuesday.
The auditor’s review comes during an election year when there’s been extra political scrutiny on signature gathering amid a bitter Republican contest for the governor’s office.
Utah Supreme Court tosses Lyman’s demand to annul election results
Rep. Phil Lyman, who lost to incumbent Gov. Spencer Cox in the June 25 primary by nearly 9 percentage points or 37,525 votes, has been attempting to cast doubt on Cox’s qualification for the Republican ballot. While Lyman won his place in the GOP primary by earning 67.5% support from Utah Republican Party delegates at the party’s state nominating convention, Cox qualified by gathering enough signatures under an alternative path allowed under Utah law.
Lyman has spent much of his campaign catering to Republicans who favor the caucus-convention system and who have long detested the passage of SB54, a 2014 law that allows the dual path to the primary ballot via signature gathering and not just through the convention nomination.
Lyman has repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempted to challenge Cox’s signature gathering qualification, losing records requests seeking voter records classified as private under Utah law, and even going as far as attempting to contest the election in court. The Utah Supreme Court last month tossed his demand to annul the results, rejecting Lyman’s assertion that a political party’s internal nomination should trump state election law.
Now, Lyman is continuing his bid for governor as a long shot write-in candidate for the Nov. 5 general election. Last month, Lyman appeared in a campaign ad with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rep. Brian King that mimicked Cox’s “Disagree Better” campaign. Though King’s campaign paid for the ad and Lyman’s appearance could have been interpreted as Lyman supporting King, Lyman has said it was intended to promote his write-in campaign.
King and Lyman mimic ‘Disagree Better’ ad, join forces against Cox
Dougall, without naming Lyman, acknowledged the rhetoric around signature gathering this election cycle in a prepared statement issued with his office’s initial findings
“Given the concerns expressed by some over the inability to review the names of voters with protected voter registration information who had signed candidates’ packets, we concentrated our work specifically reviewing a sample of those signatures,” Dougall said. “After selecting a random sample of signatures, our team worked diligently to review the validity of those signatures.”
Dougall said during that process, he “personally reviewed each of those sampled signatures for Cox’s campaign, and “I noted four exemptions from our primary sample of 373 signatures.”
“We then asked the signature validators to perform a validation of previously uncounted signatures that had been received before the submission deadline,” Dougall said. “A secondary random sample was selected for those uncounted signatures. We concluded that it is statistically likely each of these candidates met the statutory threshold of required valid signatures. In addition, each candidate had ample time before the deadline to gather additional signatures, if requested by the signature validators.”
Dougall said his office will continue its review into other aspects of Utah’s election process, “but we hope our efforts provide the electorate with greater insight into the recent signature validation process.”
Dougall also sent a letter to Utah’s top election official, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, further explaining his office’s methodology.
In the letter, Dougall noted his office’s review found some signature “exceptions” (or signatures that may not match voter registration records), but added “this should not negatively reflect on the quality of work performed” by the Davis County Clerk’s Office, which validated signature-gathering candidates’ signatures ahead of the primary.
“Rather, the low exception rate indicates that they performed their validation duties with care and professionalism,” Dougall wrote.
Henderson issued a statement Tuesday thanking Dougall for his work.
“We are pleased with Auditor Dougall’s report on the signature verification procedures for candidate petitions,” Henderson said. “This independent review confirms what our office has never doubted: that the Davis County Clerk’s office performed their duties well, and that processes and laws were followed.”
While continuing to cast doubt on election results without evidence, Lyman has previously called for more than an election audit conducted by the Utah Auditor’s Office, but rather an “external, independent, third-party audit of our elections.”
“It’s pretty clear this ‘audit’ was called to placate Lyman supporters into thinking that the legislature is promoting transparency,” Lyman’s campaign posted on X on Monday. “This audit does not increase transparency.”
Read Dougall’s full letter about the signature-gathering review here: