The Capitol in Salt Lake City is pictured as lawmakers convene a special legislative session on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
A legislative audit released Tuesday found “some errors” in Utah’s signature gathering verification process and offered a slate of recommendations to improve the system that allows for an additional path to Utah’s primary ballot, alongside the convention nomination process.
However, while legislative auditors made clear their audit was separate from official, formal processes already in place to qualify or disqualify candidates, they concluded candidates in the 2024 Republican primary “fulfilled the requirements that were given to them” to qualify for the ballot.
“Our audit findings are designed to be prospective,” auditors wrote in their report. “Candidates filled the requirements asked of them under existing processes. Further, while we identified error rates, each candidate had submitted additional signatures and would have had time to collect additional signatures, if needed.”
Auditors also noted their work is “intended to improve signature verification moving forward and is not a part of formal processes to qualify or disqualify candidates from the ballot.”
Utah lawmakers asked legislative auditors to investigate the signatures on nominating petitions for three Republican candidates: Gov. Spencer Cox (who is running for reelection), Rep. John Curtis (who is running for outgoing Sen. Mitt Romney’s seat in the U.S. Senate), and Derek Brown (who is running for attorney general). The audit also fell under legislative auditors’ typical duties to audit the state’s election system every even-numbered year.
The audit — which tested a random sample of 1,000 signatures for each candidate and reviewed every signature packet each candidate submitted — found the error rate for incorrectly validated signatures for the three candidates ranged between about 1.3% and 2.4% (1.3% for Brown, 1.7% for Curtis and 2.4% for Cox), according to the report.
It also found signature verification errors went both ways — with some signatures that should have been counted but weren’t because they were incorrectly invalidated. The error rate for incorrectly invalidated signatures ranged between 0.9% and 6.4% (0.9% for Curtis, 1.9% for Cox and 6.4% for Brown).
The auditors’ report comes during an election year that’s seen extra political scrutiny on signature gathering amid a contentious contest for the governor’s office.
Utah auditor: It’s ‘statistically likely’ Gov. Cox, others qualified for primary via signatures
Cox’s Republican rival, Rep. Phil Lyman, lost to Cox in the June 25 primary by nearly 9 percentage points or 37,525 votes. Throughout his campaign, Lyman 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 in 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 a 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. On Tuesday, ahead of the legislative audit report’s release, Lyman’s campaign in a post on X continued to accuse Cox of being an “illegitimate candidate,” and he criticized the legislative audit as not good enough.
“The signatures that ‘qualified’ him for the Primary ballot have never been verified by an unbiased, third party,” Lyman’s campaign posted. “The ‘audit’ was not a forensic audit and it was the foxes auditing the henhouse, we want an audit of the foxes.”
Two of the state’s most powerful Republicans — Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper — issued a joint statement on Tuesday alongside the audit report lauding efforts to improve Utah’s election system while also stressing that the audit “confirmed that Spencer Cox, John Curtis, and Derek Brown fulfilled the requirements to qualify to be on the ballot.”
“Nothing is more important than the integrity of our election systems,” Adams and Schultz said. “That’s why Utah proactively and regularly reviews its processes to improve and enhance security and efficiency. By focusing on these critical areas, we aim to maintain a robust and trustworthy electoral system that effectively serves the public.”
Adams and Schultz noted the audit came in response to the Legislative Audit Subcommittee’s request that auditors review the signature verification process and offer recommendations for improving future elections “as part of an ongoing effort to strengthen the security of and public trust in our election systems.”
“Although the audit identified some errors in the signature verification process, these would not have affected the primary election’s outcome,” Adams and Schultz said. “Each candidate submitted more signatures than required by law and would have had sufficient time to gather additional signatures if needed. This audit was conducted solely to improve the signature process moving forward and has no bearing on the validity of candidates during this current election.”
The Senate president and House speaker also said they “fully support” Cox, Curtis and Brown as Republican candidates in the upcoming general election on Nov. 5, and “acknowledge their diligent efforts to fulfill the requirements to run for office.”
Adams and Schultz also welcomed the audit’s recommendations and indicated they’ll likely be addressed in some form during the upcoming 2025 legislative session, which is scheduled to convene Jan. 21.
“While we are confident Utah conducts secure and fair elections, the audit highlighted several opportunities for improvement, including strengthening controls, verification standards, and transparency in the signature verification process,” they said. “The Legislature has opened bill files to address these concerns, and we will continue to work to clarify and improve election policies, processes, and practices in statute.”
Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, Utah’s top election official who oversees county clerks that administer elections, wrote a letter in response to the audit thanking auditors for their efforts and accepting the recommendations.
“My office consistently strives to improve election processes and procedures and are consistent with our election laws,” Henderson wrote. “We are never satisfied with the status quo. To that end, we appreciate the findings and recommendations of this audit — many of which we stand ready to implement. We look forward to working with the Legislature to continue our shared commitment to strengthening Utah’s elections.”
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