Updated Utah Election Numbers Due Wednesday Afternoon
Nov 4, 2020, 2:17 PM | Updated: 2:24 pm
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – A record number of Utahns voted in this election, and ballots are still being processed.
The initial results have been reported, but provisional ballots collected on Election Day as well as additional mail-in ballots still need to be counted.
The state will be releasing the next batches of election results for all counties Wednesday at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The second batch update will include counties not included in the first update.
Additionally, between 2 – 5 p.m., Election officials will be releasing the number of ballots that are in the hands of county clerks but still need to be counted.
Utah Director of Election Justin Lee said provisional ballots have not yet been added to any counts. Provisional ballots are often used by first-time voters who register on election day and voters who recently moved, including out-of-state transfers.
There will also be different results displayed for the state election results website than there are on individual counties’ sites. Lee said the state counts all ballots that have been scanned by county as “processed.” County counts often reflect ballots that have been “processed” and counted.
“Yesterday we said there was about 1.2 million ballots processed, but we didn’t release 1.2 million votes last night,” Lee said. “We released a little over 1.04 million, so that’s the difference between those numbers is what they started processing and what they finished processing or counted.”
Elections officials said Utah is expected to smash previous records across the board. In 2016, more than 1.1 million voters cast ballots, which is about 82% of registered voters.
“The turnout is absolutely phenomenal,” Lee said. “I am excited. We’ve undershot or underestimated our turnout pretty much all year long.”
Elections officials will have until Nov. 17 to certify and post the results. They said if any issues arise with a voter’s ballot, the voter will get a call from the county clerk’s office. Any cases suspected of voter fraud will be referred to each county’s district attorney’s office.
