Voting in Utah’s primary election was off to a sloooow start Tuesday. As of noon, a paltry 216 people total had voted in-person in Salt Lake County.

“Some voting centers had not had a a single voter yet,” Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen said at noon. “The voting center that had the most voters was the Holladay City Hall, with only 18 people.”

She noted that was the extreme opposite from the presidential elections last year, when lines stretched up to four hours on Election Day. That was the first major general election that used by-mail balloting, and officials were surprised at how many people chose to vote in-person on Election Day instead.

Not wanting a repeat of those long lines this year, Swensen tripled the number of Election Day voting centers for Tuesday’s primary — from 12 to 36. But they sat mostly empty during the early part of the day.

“I’m really disappointed at how few people are voting. I would encourage more to vote,” she said. “I’m disappointed that more people are not interested in the municipal elections.”

Polls are open until 8 p.m.



Swensen said that as of Monday evening, about 21.5 percent of eligible voters had cast ballots by mail in her county. It received another 20,000 ballots in the mail Tuesday that her office was busy processing.

In the slice of her county that is participating in the Republican primary for the special congressional election to replace U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the turnout was higher — more than 40 percent of eligible registered Republicans had voted by mail.

Swensen said she expects to release initial preliminary results shortly after polls close at 8 p.m., which would include all by-mail ballots received up to Election Day and results from all in-person ballots cast at in-person early voting centers.

She said her office will post updates throughout the night until all ballots from voting centers are counted. Her office will provide updates Thursday to include late-arriving by-mail ballots.

The hottest race in the state is the GOP congressional runoff pitting Provo Mayor John Curtis, former state Rep. Chris Herrod and investment adviser Tanner Ainge.

However, scores of cities and towns are also holding primaries in mayoral and city council races. In Salt Lake County, mayoral primaries are occurring in Draper, Herriman, Midvale, Murray, Sandy, South Jordan, South Salt Lake, Taylorsville, West Jordan and West Valley City.

This blog will be updated throughout the day with election news.