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Lt. Governor's Office Dismisses Utah Democratic Party Complaint

The Utah Lt. Governor’s office has dismissed a complaint filed by the Democratic Party about letters sent to unaffiliated voters.

Utah Democratic Party Chairman Peter Corroon says he’s disappointed by what he calls a non-response response from the Lt. Governor’s office.

“It didn’t look like they’d taken much effort to look into the issue and see why we feel we have a legitimate case,” Corroon says.

He says the letters county clerks have been sending out to unaffiliated voters asking them which primary ballot they’d receive is unfair, because if a person chooses the Republican ballot it registers them as a Republican.

But Deputy Lt. Governor Mark Thomas says the letter is a completely reasonable way to facilitate an election.

“They could of course send out all three ballots to each voter but that would be very confusing and has the potential for voter fraud," he says. "And of course there’s always the high potential of spoiled ballots with voters getting confused and sending in multiple ballots and then no ballot will be counted under those circumstances.”

Corroon says the next step is to speak with the Lt. Governor about the issue and find a way to make sure the letters being sent out by each county clerk is uniform.

While primaries are functions of each political party, the state has historically provided funding and resources to administer them. 

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