Mail ballots are processed on the Salt Lake County election headquarters on Nov. 7, 2022, in Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah.
George Frey/Getty Photographs
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George Frey/Getty Photographs
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has signed a bill that makes sweeping changes to the state’s standard mail voting program, together with eradicating a grace interval for postmarked ballots that arrive after Election Day.
The brand new regulation is an element of a bigger effort by Republicans to restrict the window during which mail ballots might be counted throughout an election.
Final October a U.S. appeals court docket sided with the GOP in opposition to a Mississippi regulation that permits mail ballots to be counted if they’re postmarked by Election Day however arrive after it. And together with Utah, Republican lawmakers in Kansas on Tuesday restricted mail poll return home windows. Different states, together with West Virginia, are searching for to hitch them.
President Trump additionally signed an executive order Tuesday requiring that each one states solely rely ballots which might be acquired by Election Day. The order is predicted to face authorized challenges.
In Utah, as quickly as the subsequent election, voters casting mail-in ballots will want to verify their poll is acquired by election officers by 8 p.m. on Election Day. Beforehand, voters had up to two weeks to get their poll counted if it was postmarked by the day earlier than Election Day.
In a press convention earlier this year, Cox instructed reporters that these adjustments have been wanted so the state can rely most of its ballots on election night time and media shops can name races sooner.
“There isn’t any cause we could not try this,” Cox mentioned. “That is only a alternative that we have made to permit a considerable amount of mail in ballots to return in after [Election Day] so long as they’re postmarked the day earlier than the election, they’ll are available in for every week or two afterwards.”
A number of states this 12 months are considering legal guidelines aimed toward rushing up election outcomes. Most proponents say sooner outcomes enhance confidence in elections as a result of they permit much less time for misinformation to take maintain. That is regardless that there is no such thing as a proof of widespread fraud in American elections.
“I imagine that that is one thing that will add belief to the system,” Cox mentioned. “I believe one of many areas the place we begin to lose belief is when there is not a call on election night time and there is a lot of ballots on the market and someone could have been profitable on election night time after which 5 days later they’re dropping a race. And that calls into query a lot of issues. Although … we’ve full integrity in our elections.”
Voting rights advocates, nonetheless, argue that many of those adjustments in pursuit of sooner outcomes sacrifice entry to the poll.
Barbara Smith Warner — government director of the Nationwide Vote At Residence Institute, which advocates for broader entry to mail-in voting — mentioned many states present a grace interval for voters to verify their vote is counted, even when there are delays with the put up workplace.
“Within the 2024 election, there are about 2,000 voters [in Utah] whose ballots have been certainly postmarked by Election Day and acquired inside the three days,” Warner mentioned. “These of us and whoever else will not have that. In order that’s sort of the very first thing that is going to make it tougher immediately for Utahns to vote.”
Utah is not a common mail-voting state
The brand new regulation additionally makes broader adjustments to the state’s mail voting system.
Earlier than the invoice was signed, Utah was one among eight states, plus Washington, D.C., that robotically despatched mail ballots to eligible voters. Utah was additionally the one totally Republican-led state to have such a program.
Voters will nonetheless be capable of vote by mail, however beginning in 2029 they must request a poll. Voters will even be required to offer figuring out data on their poll, in the event that they determine to mail it again or drop it off at a poll field.
In keeping with reporting from the Salt Lake Tribune, Utah’s vote-by-mail program was broadly utilized in a state the place many citizens reside hours away from a neighborhood election workplace or poll field. The newspaper’s evaluation of the 2024 main election discovered that “96.7% of Utahns who solid a main vote — over 400,000 folks — both voted by mail or left their ballots in drop containers.”
The invoice’s proponents say it will increase election safety. Warner instructed NPR she expects there can be a dip in voter participation when the regulation totally goes into impact.
She mentioned her group has discovered a big increase in turnout as election officers started to robotically ship out mail ballots in Utah a number of years in the past. And, Warner mentioned, she thinks many citizens can be off-guard after they have to begin requesting them once more.
“I believe individuals are going to be actually sad,” Warner mentioned. “What is going on to finish up occurring is Utah voters are going to pay the value and they will be those who’re going to have a tougher time voting and are going to be actually sad with the best way these insurance policies find yourself impacting their capability to vote.”
