Utah’s 2nd Congressional District race within 381 votes, recount possible
Jun 28, 2024, 6:04 PM | Updated: 6:44 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — The race in the Republican primary for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District is still too close to call after a dump of ballots Friday put Colby Jenkins in striking distance of a recount in his race to unseat Congresswoman Celeste Maloy.
The race is largely coming down to whether there are enough outstanding ballots in Washington County for Jenkins to catch up. Tooele and Juab are two other counties where Jenkins is gaining votes on Maloy, however, Tooele and Juab report that they are largely done counting.
Washington County Clerk Ryan Sullivan said Friday that 652 ballots still needed to be cured. That’s a process where voters still need to be contacted because their signature didn’t match what was on file before the vote can count.
“If I had to place my best guess, I think Celeste Malloy holds on to win this election by about 300 votes right around the .25% that would trigger an automatic recount,” local political strategist Taylor Morgan said.
“I think will be in recount territory. But it’s going to be very close,” he said.
Utah election law allows Jenkins to request a recount if the margins are within a quarter of a percent. As of Friday’s vote totals, the margin was .36%.
Jenkins celebrated his recent vote gains on X, and said that every vote counts and his supporters will remain strong.
We began today down 959… It’s now 381. Every vote counts, every vote will matter. There are nearly 53,000 members of our A-Team whose voices remain strong and hopeful to see victory still. https://t.co/24NTob0p4W
— Colby Jenkins (@ColbyforUtah) June 28, 2024
Maloy issued a statement earlier in the day before vote updated totals came out.
“I thank the county clerks and their staffs for the work they are doing. I’m focused on doing my job representing the people of the 2nd District,” she said.
Clerks have until July 9th to canvass ballots. That’s when they are required to certify the results, and the election results become official.