President Donald Trump pledged on social media at the beginning of the week that he would lead an effort to get rid of mail-in ballots. Eight states — including Utah — conduct elections by mail. Most of them are in the West.
And while he said the president is right to be skeptical of vote-by-mail, Gov. Spencer Cox is proud of his state’s system.
With more than a decade of the practice, “Utah is an outlier when it comes to the way that we implemented vote by mail,” Cox told reporters at his August monthly news conference.
He added that Utah has worked hard to keep the state’s mail-in ballot system safe, including the changes made earlier this year. In the wake of the pandemic, other states that adopted vote-by-mail systems did so “overnight,” he said.
“It's very reasonable for someone to see that and say, ‘Vote-by-mail is problematic,’” Cox said. “I'm very proud of our vote-by-mail system.”
The changes the state has made mean that, in 2029, Utah voters will no longer automatically receive a mail-in ballot. Instead, they will have to opt in every eight years. If they don’t, they must vote in person.
In Trump’s Truth Social post where he said he would start his movement against mail-in ballots, the president said he would sign an executive order “to help bring HONESTY to the 2026 Midterm Elections.” He offered no evidence in his attacks on mail ballots and voting machines. Additionally, Trump said in his post that states were agents of the federal government when it came to running elections.
Elections, however, are run by the states, each with its own rules and even smaller jurisdictions. In Utah, the lieutenant governor is the top elections official, but elections are individually run by the county clerks. States have a constitutional right to administer elections, and only Congress has the authority to change those rules, except when electing senators.
If the president did sign an executive order, Cox said he would have to see what it looks like before deciding how far Utah would go to defend its authority to make laws surrounding election administration.
“The Constitution is very clear that it's in the purview of the states and not the federal government, and I think states should defend that,” Cox said. “But we can do both things. We can defend the role of the states and be very serious about voter integrity, and I think more states need to be more serious about voting integrity.”
The governor shared how a recently elected county commissioner, whom he did not identify, had deep concerns about election integrity, but after going through his county’s processes and protocols, he has become a defender of vote-by-mail.
“He said, ‘There's no way for mass fraud in this state.’ He said, ‘I'm blown away — had no idea all the checks and balances that exist in the system,’ and I think that that is really important,” Cox said.
Even as officials have praised the system, the state has constantly tinkered with its election laws.
Republican Rep. Karianne Lisonbee is pushing for legislation to require proof of citizenship to vote. Lisonbee wants to get draft legislation considered in a September special session.
She said she’s heard two reports of noncitizens registering to vote or voting in Utah elections. After presenting to a group of elected officials and community advocates at Weber State University on Monday, she said no one there was satisfied.
“Not a single attendee indicated satisfaction with the status quo in our elections code and process,” she posted on X. “We can fix this!”
Utah Sen. Mike Lee supports Lisonbee’s legislation and introduced a bill in 2024 before Congress. The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act would require all American voters to provide proof of citizenship before voting. He called Lisonbee’s bill a “great idea for Utah and the entire country” in a post to X.
As Cox pointed out in his news conference, it’s already illegal in Utah for noncitizens to vote, and reports of people voting as noncitizens should be prosecuted.
“We're constantly looking to update our voting laws to make sure that we're protecting people and protecting the sanctity of those voter rolls,” he said.
Lawmakers want to make sure there are processes in place to prevent noncitizens from voting, but it remains to be seen if that legislation will be considered next month or next year.
“I don't know if that's something that's going to come up in a special session or in the general session, but I know those discussions are happening,” he said.
