County clerks working to make voting lines as quick as possible

SALT LAKE CITY — Voting lines were an hour long in one northern Utah location this week but county clerks in other areas are confident that that was an exception. Two local county clerks said they have plans in place to make sure voting goes smoothly as Election Day draws near.

Voting lines were an hour long at a Draper voting location this week. Weber County Clerk Ricky Hatch had some theories on why the polls are getting so crowded.

“We’re seeing an uptick in in-person voters probably because of some of the concerns that have come from other states with damage to drop boxes and things like that.”

Hatch said the longest wait times they’ve had in Weber County have only been about 15 minutes.

“Generally, people are moving through pretty quickly,” Hatch said.

Davis County Clerk Brian McKenzie said they’ve tried to troubleshoot any problems they’ve had to avoid long voting lines.

McKenzie said they were able to cut their wait times down from 15 minutes to less than five by adding more workers and voting stations.

“[We] put up some additional voting booths. We brought in an additional check-in station. Realigned our flow a little bit to where we could just process voters a little bit more smoothly and it’s been a tremendous help for us.”

But as Election Day draws closer, wait times could increase.

McKenzie said, unfortunately, there’s no way of knowing which spots will get overly crowded and when.

Hatch recommended having a plan B, like mail-in voting or dropping it in a ballot box. That way, even if lines get crazy, your voice is still heard.

But Hatch and McKenzie both said they plan to add more workers and voting bays if things get too busy.