Kelcie Hartley, Daily Herald

Utah County Commissioners, serving as the Board of Canvassers, voted Tuesday to certify the 2022 GOP primary election results.

Commissioner Bill Lee tried to make a slightly different motion — one that would allow an outside statistician to do an analysis of the results. Utah County’s legal representation advised this wouldn’t be possible because the public wasn’t given enough notice for a decision to be made.

Lee asked fellow commissioners Amelia Powers Gardner and Tom Sakievich if they were able to vote on having an outside audit done, would be for or against it?

“As long as we had an approval from legal, I think it’s a great idea,” Powers Gardner said.

“I see no handicap to do that. It’s always the American ideal is something that is always in progress, and we have never arrived and never will arrive at that ideal. So, this is part of that ideal, and I would welcome the additional insights, yes,” Sakievich said.

Kelcie Hartley, The Daily Herald

In an interview with the Daily Herald, Lee said an outside audit will most likely happen in the near future.

“That’s why I asked the question, to see if there was support. And the other two commissioners seemed on board with it,” Lee said. “Now it’s just a matter of going through our internal process to make it work. We have to figure out the parameters and work it out.”

Lee added that he believes an audit would be an opportunity for “us as a community to heal some of the misperceptions,” with a message that since he accepts that there was no election fraud, as the Clerk/Auditor’s Office has said, then a review should be welcomed.

Utah County Clerk/Auditor Josh Daniels posted the official summary results, an interactive map and precinct results for each countywide race on the county election’s website.

“As the Board of Canvassers, essentially what you are doing is declaring those candidates who were nominated in this primary, when you sign the certification document you’ll be declaring as nominated those candidates whose districts are within Utah County, Daniels said.

He told the canvassers there were no irregularities or any signs of fraudulent activity.

Lee asked Daniels a few questions about election security and protocols. The county election’s office took additional measures this June to ensure a secure election. Examples of added security measures include temporary boxes that were supervised in offices, a hotline created for the public to report any suspicious activity and surveillance cameras watching every permanent ballot drop box, mandated by state law.

Daniels added that the county’s I.T. department did a cyber security review beforehand to eliminate the threat of digital manipulation.

Sakievich discussed the process he went through to fulfill his duty as a canvasser. He said that based on his random sampling, he has full confidence in the election process and recording.

Lee wanted to clarify that his desire to have an outside audit has nothing to do with his defeat against Brandon Gordon for Commission Seat B. He said after the election results were certified he was going to call Gordon to congratulate him.

Lee gave a lengthy speech on his concerns and reasons why more steps are needed for the BOC process. He mentioned that having an outside party perform an audit will help silence any public fear and that the BOC isn’t necessary, unless the members have power to research results when needed.

“For me, the power of the Board of Canvassers is weakened,” he said. “It acts a little bit like a rubber stamp instead of a board with actual verifications.”

Powers Gardner agreed that changes should be welcomed. She said she would fully support not allowing candidates on the ballot to participate as BOC members.

“I do think it quite odd that two-thirds of this board were also canvassers on the ballot, but it’s prescribed in state law,” she said.

Early in the meeting, Cindy Butler, a statistician, addressed the BOC with a presentation of how the board could use vote record data to certify the election. Members of the public were only allotted two minutes of speaking time, and Butler was unable to finish her presentation.

During one of Lee’s comments about hiring a professional statistician, he referred to the individual as “she.” Lee told the Daily Herald he was referring to Butler because she contacted him after his request for the CVR documents went public.

“I got a phone call from her, and she said she’s done analyses with other counties, so I used her as an example,” he said.

There is no guarantee Butler will get the job if the BOC members choose to have an outside audit done.

“We have to be open to anyone that has the expertise to do it,” said Lee. “I just mentioned her because she’s done it before with other counties, so she has an idea of what can be done.”

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