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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson certified the statewide June 25 primary election Monday, solidifying victories for incumbent Republicans such as Gov. Spencer Cox, Rep. Blake Moore and Rep. Celeste Maloy.
Maloy, who represents Utah's 2nd Congressional District, narrowly defeated challenger Colby Jenkins by 214 votes, although the margin is close enough for a recount, and Jenkins' campaign has signaled it is likely to request one. Jenkins has seven days to request a recount following Monday's statewide election canvass.
The results reflect the final tallies reported by each county a little less than two weeks ago and make official the victories projected for Cox, Moore, congressional candidate Mike Kennedy and U.S. Senate candidate John Curtis on election night. In statewide races, Derek Brown secured the GOP nomination for attorney general and Tina Cannon earned the nod for state auditor.
The 2nd Congressional District race was the only major election that was too close to call on election night, and only got closer as ballots continued to be counted over the following two weeks with Jenkins, a combat veteran, winning by large margins in his home of Washington County. Maloy, meanwhile, outperformed her showing last year in major counties along the Wasatch Front.
Jenkins sought to delay the certification of the election due to a tranche of ballots from southern Utah counties that were postmarked too late to be counted. The U.S. Postal Service processes mail from several southern Utah counties in Las Vegas, and Jenkins speculated that some of those ballots may have been mailed on time but received a late postmark due to the Postal Service's processing.
A federal judge on Friday denied the campaign's request to halt the certification process, saying Jenkins did not provide enough evidence that rejected ballots were mailed on time or that state officials treated some voters unequally.
"Just because the delays occurred for these individuals does not mean there's arbitrary and disparate treatment of voters by the state statutory system. I find that that system posted puts the burden on the voter to obtain the timely postmark," U.S. District Judge David Nuffer said.
Jenkins' campaign is expected to file for a recount, though his campaign manager did not respond to a request for comment. Previous recounts have only changed a handful of votes, and the final result of any recount is not expected to change.
Maloy, who was first elected in a special election last fall, is seeking her first full term in office and declared victory in a call with reporters following the county canvasses on July 9.
"Two hundred and fourteen votes is pretty close, but it's about 213 votes more than you need to win, so I'm grateful for that," she said. "I'm glad to have some finality. I know we're in potential recount territory, but I don't anticipate that a recount will change the outcome."
The certification also cements Cox — along with Henderson, his running mate — as the GOP nominees for governor and lieutenant governor. Although the pair led state Rep. Phil Lyman, R-Blanding, and Natalie Clawson on election night and were projected the winners, Lyman delayed conceding before all the votes were counted.
Lyman has since pivoted to questioning the validity of the signatures collected to qualify Cox for the primary ballot and has yet to acknowledge his loss. Cox won by a margin of 37,525 votes.
All told, just over 430,000 Republicans cast votes in last month's primary, about 47.65% of the more than 900,000 active GOP voters in the state.
