Utah's 2000 election results were officially certified Monday, an administrative process that every two years goes unnoticed.
This year is a bit different — although Utah's election results, even the close ones, were not contested in court. Florida's struggles in the U.S. presidential race has shone a spotlight on how elections across the country are conducted.
The three-member Utah Board of Canvassers, who certified the elections statewide Monday, basically authorizes the election results as reported by the state's 29 county clerks, who under state law actually conduct the elections. The board consists of the attorney general, Jan Graham; state treasurer, Ed Alter; and state auditor, Austin Johnson.
Each county also has a board of canvassers, who certified their results a week after the Nov. 7 elections and sent them on to Lt. Gov. Olene Walker, the state elections officer.
After all the certifying takes places the only recourse for unhappy losers in the elections is to go to court.
One already has.
Dub Richards, the Natural Law Party candidate for governor, failed to file his Sept. 15 campaign financial disclosure statement on time with Walker's office. By state law his name must be stricken from the ballot, and it was.
Richards sent out a press release this week saying he was filing suit in federal court claiming election fraud.
Several years ago Richards, who is confined to a wheelchair, also failed to file his campaign disclosure on time, and Walker ordered his name be taken off the ballot. That time Richards filed suit in state court and the judge, citing in part Richards' disability, ordered his name back on the ballot. Richards lost anyway.
Utah had some very close elections this year. And some recounts. Even some hand recounts of computer-punched ballots. But the results didn't change from the original election-night tallies.
Former Rep. Grant Protzman, a Democrat, lost the Utah Senate District 19 race to Rep. Dave Gladwell, R-North Ogden, by only 15 votes out of more than 24,000 cast. A recount in the district, which spans Weber and Morgan counties, didn't change the close result.
And in House District 31 in Salt Lake County Democrat Ty McCartney defeated Republican M. Scott Romney by 103 votes out of 10,300 cast.
In that race the polling judges in one precinct made a mistake and placed a District 30 voting machine in the District 31 polling area. Some people who may have wanted to vote for Romney or McCartney didn't find their names on the ballot machine.
Romney said last week he'd consider suing after Monday's official state election certification. And the state Republican Party said it would foot the legal bill.
But Salt Lake County Clerk Sherrie Swensen says state law allows a court to overturn an election only if any mistakes in voting could have changed the result. And there weren't enough voters in that precinct — and not enough voters used the mistaken ballot machine — to make a difference in the 103-vote margin, she said.
In any case, by and large Utah's 2000 election went off smoothly, not withstanding some hanging chads.
Democrats, a minority in the Utah House and Senate, said during the campaign that come the 2001 Legislature they will once again try to change state law to take oversight of state elections away from Walker — who won a third four-year term with GOP Gov. Mike Leavitt Nov. 7. They say it is just too clear a conflict of interest to have a partisan elected official oversee elections.
Walker has said before that she won't oppose creation of an independent, nonpartisan elections office. But she maintains she has run her office in a nonpartisan manner and tried to make the best decisions possible for all Utahns. Republicans in the House and Senate have refused to set up an independent elections office, saying it would cost too much money and create another bureaucracy.
E-MAIL: bbjr@desnews.com