Some Utah County voters incorrectly received notice telling them to include copy of ID with ballot
by Bridger Beal-Cvetko ksl · KSL.comKEY TAKEAWAYS
- Utah County Clerk's Office mistakenly sent ID requirement notices to some voters.
- Clerical error affected 71 previous voters and some verified first-time voters.
- Clerk's office clarified the mistake ensuring verified voters' ballots won't be rejected.
PROVO — The Utah County Clerk's Office inadvertently sent mailers to some registered voters incorrectly stating that they needed to return a copy of their ID with their mail-in ballot or it would be rejected.
Some first-time voters do need to include a copy of their ID when sending their ballot back, but the ID is not required with returned ballots if a voter has previously voted or has already verified their identity beforehand. The clerk's office sent out some 6,144 notices alerting voters of the need to include a copy of their ID ahead of this fall's midterms, but at least 71 went to people who had previously voted, and an unknown number were sent to first-time voters who had already been verified, according to Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson.
He said a clerical error in his office led to the notices being sent out, but his team has fixed the issue, ensuring ballots will not be rejected for those who have already verified their identity.
"There's processes in place, but we're not going to disenfranchise anybody," he told KSL on Friday.
The Utah Elections Handbook requires election workers to verify identity when voters register by comparing it with a database containing driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers. If a voter does not provide ID when they register, they must show ID before voting, vote in person, or include a copy of their ID with their mail-in ballot.
"Voters that have voted in person, or who were imported into VISTA at the time of its creation do not need to show additional ID to vote by mail, but do still need to show valid ID to vote in person," the handbook states.
The state elections office received a complaint from a voter on Monday, according to Deputy Director of Elections Shelly Jackson.
"I think the county just got a little overzealous and marked all the first-time voters" as needing to prove their identity, she said.
Davidson said various reasons led to some voters being incorrectly notified. His office put out a clarification Friday, taking responsibility for the mistake.
"Unfortunately, this notice was also sent to some voters who did not need to provide identification," his office stated. "We recognize that this caused unnecessary confusion, and we sincerely apologize."
The county also included instructions for different types of voters to make sure their ballots are counted:
- First-time voters: Follow the identification instructions in your insert if you have not already satisfied the ID requirement.
- Returning voters: You do not need to submit additional ID simply because you received this insert.
- Not sure? Call our office at 801-851-8683.
Voters can also sign up to receive alerts on the status of their ballot at vote.utah.gov.
This isn't the first time ballot instructions from Davidson's office have caused confusion. Last year, the county mailed notices instructing voters to include the last four digits of their driver's license, state identification card number or Social Security card number or risk their vote not being counted.
The four-digit requirement is part of a new Utah voter ID law. That provision hasn't taken effect yet, but counties can put a space for those digits on the ballot if they want to.
The issue with incorrect notices being sent appears to be isolated to Utah County.
"I was quite surprised when a couple of voters started contacting our office about this," Jackson said. "It's just not something that we see regularly."
Contributing: Heather Peterson and Andy Cupp
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.