Reverberating from the national echo chamber is plenty of drama around the U.S. Postal Service and voting by mail. But Utah election officials say Utah’s nearly eight-year track record of voting by mail has positioned the state to have a reliable and secure 2020 election.
“We lead the nation in this,” Utah County Clerk/Auditor Amelia Powers Gardner said.
Gardner, a Republican who oversees elections in one of Utah’s most conservative counties, and other election officials in the state say the national debate around mail-in ballots, fraud and the Postal Service — starting with comments from President Donald Trump — has been aggravating because voting by mail is far from a new concept in the Beehive State, which began implementing mail-in ballots all the way back in 2012.
Even though she shares a political party with Trump, Gardner said she’s “very frustrated with our president” and worries his comments could erode the public’s confidence in the election process when states like Utah have for years conducted vote-by-mail elections with success.
“Anytime you undermine people’s confidence in election results without fact-based data, you’re actually undermining the integrity of our elections,” Gardner said.
As other states grapple with swiftly implementing universal vote-by-mail elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Utah is already ahead of the game. Showing a long and proven track record that voting by mail is not fraught with fraud — and showing long-established working relationships with local postmasters — Utah’s state and local election officials are confident there will be no issues or mailing delays for the 2020 general election.
“We’ve been talking with local post office officials and county clerks, and we’re confident we’ll be able to handle the volume,” Utah Elections Director Justin Lee said, regardless of recent attacks on the U.S. Postal Service. “That’s because we’ve done it before.”