Update Jan. 30: HB69 passed the Utah House with a unanimous vote. Now the bill moves to the Senate. Our original story continues below.
Utah lawmakers are considering a criminal penalty for the disclosure of information tied to a voter’s mail-in ballot, including the postage paid. The bill, HB69, would protect an individual’s voting method, whether they’ve returned a ballot and the date their ballot was returned.
It also prohibits election officers from accessing this data if it’s not necessary to fulfill their duties.
“We had a situation with county clerks accessing information, using [it] for political purposes with the media,” Republican bill sponsor Rep. Stephanie Gricius told the House Government Operations Committee on Jan. 22.
Gricius was referring to Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson, who released details about Sen. Michael McKell during the 2024 election. Davidson revealed that the Republican specifically voted by mail and did not put a stamp on his ballot. Davidson defended his actions during the meeting as a response to McKell encouraging voters to use mail-in ballots.
“I was out there trying to do my duty as the county clerk, to influence people to use the most safe and secure method of returning their ballots, which is the ballot drop box,” Davidson said. “We have full chain of custody with the ballot drop boxes, whereas with the U.S. Postal Service, we do not have full chain of custody.”
Voter information like name, address, ballot type and ballot date are all currently accessible through the Utah County Clerk Elections Division with a $35 Has Voted Subscription. The information is also accessible with a public records request, according to Davidson. Unless the voter’s record is marked as private.
The proposed bill has less to do with ballot method information and more to do with protocol, said Republican Rep. Cory Maloy. He criticized Davidson for politicizing the voting process.
“To specifically look at any group of people for whatever reason to see how they return their ballot, going back to the code of conduct is not good conduct, in my opinion,” Maloy said.
However, prohibiting access to this voter data is still a big part of the bill, and that concerns Utahn Wendy Hart, who spoke at the hearing. She said ballot method information is irrelevant to the average voter and should be available.
“I'm a data analyst. It's very beneficial for data to be able to see when ballots come in and things like that,” Hart said. “So to give people greater transparency and greater comfort with the elections process, more information is better, and so that's why I'm opposed to this.”
Gricius said she worked with county clerks, the state, the Lt. Governor's Office and “party data nerds” to make sure candidates can still get the information they need.
The Government Operations Committee unanimously advanced the bill. It now goes to the House for further debate.
Elle Crossley is an intern with Amplify Utah and KUER covering the Utah State Legislature and other local news.
