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A voter fills out her ballot at the voting booth at the in-person voting center at the Utah County Health and Justice Building in Provo on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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A voter places his ballot in the drop box located at the in-person voting center at the Utah County Health and Justice Building in Provo on Tuesday, Sept. 5, 2023.

Nichole Whiteley, Daily Herald

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Polls closed Tuesday night for municipal primaries across the valley, with eight Utah county cities holding elections. Candidates who make it through the primaries will vie for open city council seats in the upcoming November general election.

Of the 229,781 registered voters in Utah County, 35,674 ballots were cast, leading to a 15.5% voter turnout.

Provo City Council

Provo City Council candidates Gary Garrett and McKay R. Jensen appear poised to move on to the November general election after securing the most votes so far in Tuesday’s primary election. They are competing for the Citywide II seat.

Unofficial results Tuesday night show Garrett received 2,643 votes, or 40%, and Jensen received 1,728, or 26%.

Those seemingly not moving forward to the general election are Tanner Bannett with 14.6% of the vote, Wendy Ahlman with 12%, Joseph Penrose with 4.6% and Nathan Smith Jones with 1.7%.

Last week, candidate Ari Emmanuel Webb was disqualified from the Citywide II race after failing to submit a financial disclosure as required. He later endorsed Joseph Penrose in the race.

Garrett was a Provo City Council member from 2011-2015 and has previously worked with the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce and Provo Downtown Alliance.

Jensen has about a decade of experience working on the Provo School District Board of Education and Mountainland Technical College board of trustees.

The winning candidate in the November general election will replace current council member David Shipley, whose term ends in January.

Key issues surrounding the Provo municipal election included affordable housing, rapid growth, public safety and homelessness.

No primary was held for the District 1, 3 and 4 races due to a limited number of candidates in each race. Running for District 1 are Craig Christensen and Stan Jensen, District 3 includes David Lewis and Becky Bogdin, and current council member Travis Hoban is the sole candidate in District 4.

Orem City Council

The Orem City Council candidates that look to be moving forward to the November general election are Jeffrey K. Lambson, Jenn Gale, Chris Killpack, Crystal Muhlestein, Matt McKell and Spencer Rands.

The number of votes and percentage of votes received by each candidate moving forward are as follows:

• Jeffrey K. Lambson – 5,515, 19.94%.
• Jenn Gale – 5,078, 18.36%.
• Chris Killpack – 5,051, 18.26%.
• Crystal Muhlestein – 3,208, 11.60%.
• Matt McKell – 2,907, 10.51%.
• Spencer Rands – 2,573, 9.30%.

Tuesday night’s partial results revealed that these six will move likely forward to compete for the three City Council spots available. Those whose terms are up, which made these spots available, are Debby Lauret, Terry Peterson and Jeff Lambson. Lambson is the only one seeking reelection and will now have the chance to be reelected in the general election.

Mike Carpenter was behind Rands by 1,436 votes, and the rest of those seemingly not moving on had a number of votes below 100. Those lagging candidates are Carpenter, Heather M. Fry, Greg Duerden, David Edward Garber, Wade A. Sewell and Archie A. Williams III.

Of the 12 candidates, three are women and two will now have the chance for a spot on the council. There are currently two women on the Orem City Council out of the six council members and Mayor David Young. With the new election, there will be just one woman on the council unless another is elected.

According to Stand For Orem, a political action committee, some of the main issues in Orem that have been on voters and candidates minds are high-density housing, the State Street master plan, Orem school closures and traffic plans.

All of the other candidates that have moved forward have stated they also do not support high density housing. To learn more about the candidates and their views on how Orem should move forward visit https://orem.org/candidates2023/

Results for other Utah County cities

The following candidates for each city appear likely to move forward to the November general election, with each municipality having three council seats open.

Lehi:

• Paige Albrecht
• Michelle Stallings
• Heather Newall
• Corey Astill
• Nicole Kunze
• Kenneth Roberts

Pleasant Grove:

• Cyd Lemone
• Eric Jensen
• Steve Rogers
• Brent Bullock
• Greg Sorensen
• Denise Trickler

American Fork:

• Clark Preston Taylor
• Kenneth Sumsion
• Ernie John
• Tim Holley
• Austin Duke
• Jeff Shorter

Eagle Mountain:

• Melissa Clark
• Rich Wood
• Jared R Gray
• Craig Whiting
• Angeline Washburn
• Scott Ferre

Spanish Fork:

• Stacy Beck
• Landon Tooke
• Matt Barber
• Jesse Cardon
• Mike Clayson
• Jackie Larson

Springville:

• Mindi Wright
• Jacob Gregg Smith
• Logan Millsap
• Craig Conover
• Hunter Huffman
• John Harvey Wells

The general election will be held on Nov. 21, with mail-in ballots being sent out on Oct. 30. Vineyard, Payson, Genola, Woodland Hills and Lehi will be participating in a ranked-choice voting system this election cycle.

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