Another election won't be needed in two Layton precincts - despite a ballot mix-up - because the confusion did not cause the outcome to be different.
Layton precincts 37 and 43 were transposed in the Utah House Districts 15 and 16 races, meaning respective voters didn't have the correct House candidates on their ballots.In a meeting Monday morning with the candidates, Davis County clerk/auditor Margene Isom said the Democratic Party became aware of the error on Nov. 5, two days after the election.
In House District 15, Republican Blake Chard defeated Democrat Beatrice R. Espinoza, 65 percent of the vote to 29 percent. Libertarian Susan Green Parker had 6 percent of the votes.
For House District 16, Republican Kevin Garn won with 69 percent of the votes over Democrat Todd B. Nilsen, who had 31 percent.
There were 812 registered voters in precinct 37, with 244 going to the polls. In precinct 43, 319 of 759 registered voters went to the polls.
However, Chard and Garn would still be victorious, because even if every missing voter had chosen Espinoza, she would gain only 244 more votes and in Nilsen's case it would be 319 - not nearly enough to sway either outcome.
Espinoza conceded she lost the election regardless of the mix-up. But she said her percentages would have been up.
She said some of her supporters in precinct 37, located east of Layton Hills Mall, called her and said they could not find her on the ballot. Some indicated other family members didn't go vote later at all because previous family members told them Espinoza wasn't on the ballot anyway.
"We want to make this public," Isom said. "We want to apologize. We want to make everything right."
She said the error first appeared on voting maps in early 1996 - not in the map's boundaries, but rather its written summary of precincts/districts. The ballots in 1996 were adjusted in time to avoid an error, but the mistake in the county's computer system was not fixed.
Furthermore, while the next batch of 100 official voting maps from Bountiful's Carr Printing Co. were corrected, when Isom ordered additional maps later they somehow included the original error.
"The county and Carr printing must share the blame," Isom said.
However, Lloyd Carr of Carr Printing doesn't feel his company is to blame. The mistake was a proofing area by the county.
Ironically, Isom is retiring as clerk on Dec. 31 and this was her first election error in her 10-year career.
"I don't pretend to think my staff is perfect," Isom said.
Still, she promised to send apology letters to all candidates, as well as any affected voters for which she obtains addresses. Isom also said she'l personally check to make sure the error is not made again on the November 2000 ballot.
Isom said she was shocked that no one contacted her election day to point out the ballot error. However, so many voters went with a straight party ticket that many might not have even been aware of the error.
Both the Davis Republican and Democratic parties called for better voter education and maybe even the need for a receptionist at each voting location to help voters find their correct polling place.
One Layton voting location had four different ballots because of the variance in voting boundaries. Davis County contains 205 precincts and had 22 different ballots this year.
Larry Barusch, Davis Democratic Chairman, would like the voting precinct lines redrawn by the State Legislature so they cover individual city boundaries better. As it is now, Layton and Kaysville share portions of House Districts 15 and 16.
He said it's remarkable there aren't more mistakes considering the complexities of boundaries and the county's 600 different election judges.