Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Utah lawmakers propose a bill criminalizing the disclosure of voters' ballot methods.
- The bill follows a Utah County Clerk's controversial tracking of voting methods, sparking concerns.
- The legislation aims to protect voter privacy and ensure election integrity in Utah.
SALT LAKE CITY — Election officials who access and disclose information about how specific Utah voters cast their ballots would face criminal charges under a draft bill backed by a panel of Utah lawmakers.
The "Ballot Information Accessibility Amendments" approved unanimously by the Utah Legislature's Government Operations Interim Committee comes after Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson told the Deseret News he tracked the method some politicians used to vote so he knew that one of his critics, state Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, returned his June primary ballot without a stamp.
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray confirmed shortly after the late October disclosure that his office was investigating. "It raises concerns to me, obviously," he said, adding that the issue may require a legislative fix and it was "hard to say" whether his office was conducting a criminal investigation.
Davidson has tried to discourage voters from using the mail to return their ballots by not providing return postage, saying the county's ballot drop boxes are safer and more secure. McKell, recently elected Senate majority assistant whip, labeled the decision political on social media and advised voters that their ballots would be delivered without a stamp, sparking an exchange with Davidson.
The sponsor of the draft bill, Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, said she also heard from Davidson about mailing back her primary ballot rather than depositing it in a drop box.
"I found it wildly inappropriate that he was tracking me but honestly, what concerns me more is the chance that it could happen to others," she said when asked how personal the issue is to her. "I take my responsibility to the people who elected me very seriously and I see shoring up a loophole in election law as a way of protecting and ensuring their rights."
'You should not be doing it'
The Utah County clerk did not respond Thursday to a request for comment on the bill, which would make it a class B misdemeanor to access or disclose whether a specific or "an identifiable group of voters" voted in person or by returning their ballots via the U.S. Postal Service or at a drop box.
Davidson did, however, post about the bill on X: "Stephanie Gricius and @mikemckellutah airing their personal grievances through legislative action. Do you have the power to make your pet peeves illegal? Do you consider this an abuse of power?" The Wednesday post included a link to the bill.
At the interim committee meeting, Gricius said the bill "came as the result of a county clerk releasing information to the media about specific individuals and the way that they cast ballots" but neither she nor anyone else mentioned Davidson by name.
"What this bill essentially says is you cannot do a 'looky-loo' at someone's information for fun. If you don't have a specific election related purpose, then you can't just look up specific individuals," she said, adding that "basically, if you do not have a specific purpose for searching a specific individual, you should not be doing it."
'Protecting all voters'
Sen. Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley City, the committee's co-chairman, spoke forcefully in favor of the bill.
"Whether for a noble, crusading idea or whether out of malice or spite is irrelevant, the idea that someone could access that protected, sacred right to vote and weaponize it against opponents or enemies real or perceived is unthinkable," Thatcher said, adding, "there should be no question whatsoever that the right to a secret ballot is sacrosanct."
The favorable recommendation from the interim committee made up of House and Senate members means the bill is eligible to go directly to the House floor for a vote during the 2025 Legislature that begins in January. Gricius said there will be some minor changes needed to make sure the bill doesn't impact publicly available election data.
That record, she said, does not differentiate between ballots that are put in a drop box and those that are mailed back. It does specify the date a ballot was returned, which the bill also prohibits from being accessed or disclosed. That could be changed, Gricius said, noting that because of her involvement, she was not involved with the original drafting instructions for the bill.
"The purpose is to keep those we trust with our elections from abusing their position and using an individual's ballot information as a weapon," she said. "The clerks have a lot of power when it comes to our elections and the voters of Utah have a right to a secret and secure ballot. This is about protecting all voters and ensuring integrity in our election process."
