Where To Register To Vote In Utah County

Melinda Tooley drops off her primary ballot at Midvale City Hall in Midvale. — Melinda Tooley drops off her primary ballot at Midvale City Hall in Midvale on June xxx, 2020. On Tuesday, June seven, 2022, county clerks across Utah began mailing ballots for the country's June 28 primary elections.

On Tuesday, canton clerks beyond Utah began mailing ballots for the state's June 28 main elections.

All simply one of Utah'southward delegation faces a main claiming this year — freshman Sen. Manus Romney, who is halfway through his six-yr Senate term. A number of state lawmakers, school lath members and county officials as well take challengers inside their own party.

The Republican primaries for U.Due south. Senate and Business firm are of item importance, as they often determine the overall winner in deep blood-red Utah.

With the exception of Utah's quaternary Congressional District, where Democrat Ben McAdams served one term earlier he was narrowly ousted by Republican Burgess Owens in 2020, the GOP has enjoyed a tight grip on Utah'due south Senate and House seats for decades. Jim Matheson, who likewise represented the quaternary Congressional District, is the only other Democrat to represent Utah in Washington, D.C., in the last 20 years.

From how to register if you're an unaffiliated voter, to the Deseret News' coverage of the debates, here are five things to know ahead of the upcoming GOP primaries.

The basics

On Tuesday, every registered voter in Utah was mailed a ballot. That doesn't hateful every registered voter will receive a ballot, equally changes in addresses or political party affiliation could impact when and where yours is mailed.

In that location are several ways to vote — past mail, ballot drop boxes, early voting locations and polling locations on Election Day.

Here are some of import dates to consider:

March 31: The last day to change political party affiliation if you are registered Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or i of Utah's many other political parties.
June vii: Ballots are mailed to registered voters.
June 17: The terminal day to register to vote by mail service and for unaffiliated voters to annals with a party. Voters tin yet register in person at early voting locations or on Ballot Twenty-four hour period.
June 21: The concluding day to asking a mail-in ballot.
June 24: The day many county clerks, including Salt Lake's, recommend you lot put your ballot in the post.
June 27: Ballots sent via postal service need to be postmarked on this 24-hour interval.
June 28: Election Day.
July 11: The day before the board of canvassers meets to certify the election, and the last 24-hour interval a voter with a discrepancy in their election — similar a missing signature — can submit their cure letter to fix the fault.

Sherrie Swensen, Salt Lake County clerk of 32 years, says every election there are a few things that go far the way of Utahns successfully submitting their ballots.

Update your address with the county clerk: It'south important that anyone who moved notifies their county clerk so they can receive the correct ballot. When someone moves, they oftentimes have dissimilar representation at their new address — in some Utah towns, like Millcreek, but moving across the street could land you in a new congressional district. Ballots cannot be forwarded to a new address because they would accept the wrong candidates for that district.

"Nosotros want people to permit us know if they've moved so nosotros can update their address. We volition spoil the election we've already mailed, and then if anyone else turns it in, information technology would be invalid," said Swensen. "We would then generate a new election to their new address."

Postmark your ballot the day before Ballot Day: Every year there are hundreds of ballots accounted invalid in Salt Lake County because they are postmarked also late. "That ever makes me very pitiful," said Swensen. If you miss that deadline, you can always stop by 1 of the state's many ballot drop boxes before 8 p.thousand. on June 28.
Sign the return election envelope: Voters sometimes forget to sign the affidavit, a critical identifier needed to count their vote. For those who forget, the county will send out a cure letter to notify the voter that their ballot has not been counted — Table salt Lake County, and other counties, will as well telephone call and e-mail voters. "If I could put a neon sign on the affirmation envelope, I would," said Swensen.

What to know if you are an unaffiliated voter

Unaffiliated voters are a massive role of the Utah electorate. Consider this:

As of Monday, there are 477,658 active unaffiliated voters in Utah — 190,097 of them in Common salt Lake County.
There are 874,114 active registered Republicans — 238,093 in Salt Lake County.
There are 234,104 active registered Democrats — 127,300 in Salt Lake County.

Unaffiliated does non hateful independent, though the two terms are often used interchangeably. It only means you are registered to vote, just not with a particular political party.

If you are unsure which party y'all are registered with, if any, you can check your status on the country's website.

The GOP primary is closed, pregnant only registered Republicans can vote — unaffiliated voters, however, accept until June 17 to register as a Republican. If they miss that borderline, they can annals and vote in person.

In Common salt Lake County, all unaffiliated voters received a ballot preference letter letting them know they have an option to request a ballot.

What to know if yous are registered with a party

Considering the Utah GOP holds closed primaries, it'south too late to vote for whatsoever Republicans this June if you're already registered with another party.

In 2021, Rep. Jordan Teuscher, R-South Jordan, sponsored HB197 to cut down on so-called party raiding, where Democrats register as Republicans, or vice versa, to vote against certain candidates. Instead of June 17, the deadline to switch parties is now March 31.

All Republicans will be automatically mailed a Republican election. Country level Democratic primaries are open, and so an unaffiliated voter or registered Republican can notwithstanding vote for candidates in those elections if they request a ballot.

New districts

There are some Utahns who, despite their representative for the concluding several years running for reelection, might see some unfamiliar names on their GOP ballot this twelvemonth.

That'due south because of new maps drawn by the Utah Legislature in 2021 that slice Salt Lake City into four congressional districts. The second, tertiary and 4th districts used to converge east of the metropolis in the Wasatch Mountains — now, all 4 districts meet in Millcreek.

The 1st Congressional District at present encompasses parts of eastern Common salt Lake Metropolis that used to be in the 2nd District, while the 4th District creeped further north into Salt Lake County, and south into Sanpete County.

Updated maps are available here. You tin can compare those districts with the maps used from 2012-22 here. The state's election portal too has personalized data regarding the new districts and ballots.

The new maps are not without controversy — advocates say lawmakers are guilty of gerrymandering, and have filed a lawsuit.

Who is on the ballot?

Perhaps the about loftier-profile race this year is for i of Utah's two Senate seats, held past Republican Sen. Mike Lee since 2010.

Lee faces two primary challengers — former Republican state lawmaker Becky Edwards and Ally Isom, a longtime communications, public policy and political strategist. Utah has never elected a woman to the U.S. Senate.

The iii candidates took the debate stage once, answering questions drafted by the Utah Republican Political party. However Lee, similar all just ane of his Utah colleagues in the House and Senate facing reelection, declined to participate in the debate hosted by the Utah Debate Committee.

The GOP nominee in the Senate race will not face off against a Democrat in the general election. Instead, the Utah Democratic Party threw its support behind contained Evan McMullin, a former CIA agent who received 22% of Utah's vote during the 2016 presidential election.

1st Congressional District

Freshman Rep. Blake Moore has 2 opponents in June's election: Tina Cannon, a onetime Morgan County Quango member and Andrew Badger, a former intelligence officer for the U.Southward. Defense Intelligence Bureau.

Both Moore and Cannon qualified for the principal through signature gathering, while Badger gained enough back up during the Republican Convention to brand his way on the ballot.

Moore was the only member of the Utah Delegation to participate in a Utah Contend Commission event, a fiery debate where he repeatedly defended his tape against claims that he hasn't pushed dorsum enough on President Joe Biden's agenda.

2d Congressional Commune

Elected in 2012, Rep. Chris Stewart is chasing his sixth term in the House — but for the first time in his congressional career, he faces a primary challenge in Erin Rider, a Salt Lake Metropolis attorney.

Though she but received fifteen% of the vote during the Republican state convention, Rider gathered signatures alee of time to earn a spot on the primary ballot.

Stewart also declined a Utah Debate Commission invite. Still, he and Rider sat downwards in a GOP-sponsored debate where they were largely on the aforementioned page regarding gun command, inflation, immigration and policies pushed by the Biden assistants.

3rd Congressional District

Utah Rep. John Curtis has been in Congress for over 4 years. In that fourth dimension, he'due south defeated Chris Herrod twice — this June will mark the fourth attempt by the Provo-based existent manor developer and former country lawmaker, who trounce Curtis in a Utah Business firm race years agone.

Curtis defeated Herrod in a three-person special ballot in 2017 and in a master in 2018. Curtis didn't take a primary in 2020.

The two met in a GOP-sponsored fence on the BYU campus, where they tackled issues including education reform, Large Tech, Roe vs. Wade, immigration and the 2d Amendment in the wake of the mass shooting that killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas.

4th Congressional District

Rep. Burgess Owens enters his second main after narrowly beating Democrat Ben McAdams by simply over three,500 votes in 2020.

Owens was the preferred nominee during the GOP convention, winning over 68% of the vote — but his opponent, Jake Hunsaker, collected plenty signatures to face the sometime NFL player and frequent Fox News host in the main.

Hunsaker, who works in business analytics and operations direction, never got his chance to contend Owens, who declined to participate in debates sponsored by both the Utah Fence Commission and the Utah Republican Political party.