POLITICS & ELECTIONS

Lt. Gov. Henderson’s defense of election system contrasts with other Republicans

Oct 3, 2024, 5:22 PM | Updated: 7:07 pm

SALT LAKE CITY — With Election Day just over a month away, and ballots set to be mailed out to Utah voters in less than two weeks, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson is defending the state’s election system and condemning threats and claims of fraud.

At a speech Thursday at the University of Utah, the Republican elected official acknowledged her views go against the grain of what many in her own party are saying.

“It’s just not politically popular – especially for someone in my political party – to stand up for elections,” Henderson said.

But Henderson, who has served as lieutenant governor since 2021, said Utah’s elections are secure and fair – even though small cases of human error do occur.

“Just because you lose an election, or your candidate loses an election, does not mean that the election was rigged or stolen,” Henderson said.

Those claims have burst onto the national scene ever since former President Donald Trump falsely claimed he won the 2020 election. Other Republicans across the country have parroted those claims and refuse to say that Trump lost.

In Utah, Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, still hasn’t conceded his primary election loss in the race for governor. After Henderson’s speech Thursday, Lyman doubled down on social media, claiming the election wasn’t transparent and calling Gov. Spencer Cox and Henderson “corrupt, illegitimate candidates.”

Henderson’s speech comes after the FBI recently intercepted an envelope addressed to her office that contained a suspicious powder. She said threats and harassment against election workers “are so commonplace that they’ve become almost unremarkable. This trend should alarm everyone.”

Tim Chambless, a political science professor at the University of Utah, told KSL TV the uptick in threats is “unprecedented in our history.”

“In the past, we thought this was something that occurred in other countries – autocracies, dictatorships, marginal democracies,” Chambless said. “To have it in our country is very disturbing.”

Chambless said those threats impact not just people but the democratic system as a whole.

“It causes doubt. It causes uncertainty among the American voting public that maybe democracy doesn’t work,” he said. “These threats are exactly what Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping or the dictator in North Korea or the folks in Iran want to see.”

Ahead of Election Day, Henderson urged Utahns to track their vote online and accept the election results. She also said there’s room for improvement in Utah elections – which are carried out by individual county clerks – but she condemned those who cast doubt on the entire system based on rumors and lies.

“I worry that it’s become normal to believe lies and abnormal to believe truth,” Henderson said. “We have to normalize truth again.”

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Lt. Gov. Henderson’s defense of election system contrasts with other Republicans