Utah holds its third June primary Tuesday. And if it's anything like the past two, more Utahns will undoubtedly be casting fishing line than ballots.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Contact your county clerk to locate your polling place.
Any registered voter can vote in any party's primary. Most Utahns, however, will only be choosing Republicans.
Statewide, there are three GOP races: Gov. Mike Leavitt faces challenger Glen Davis in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Rep. Merrill Cook, R-Utah, faces Derek Smith in the 2nd Congressional District. Salt Lake County Commissioner Mark Shurtleff faces fellow attorney Frank Mylar in the GOP attorney general race.
Democrats settled most of their party nominations in their state and county conventions.
However, in the Salt Lake County Council District 6, Democrats have a primary between former County Commissioner Pete Kutulas and Chris Cage. District 6 includes Midvale, the Walker Lane area of the county, then wraps around to exclude Sandy but to include Draper and parts of Bluffdale and Riverton.
Republicans also have a dozen or so primaries for the Utah House and Senate across the state. Democrats have no legislative primaries this year.
Some minor parties also have primaries, as do a number of school districts with nonpartisan board races.
Voter turnout in June primaries has been low since lawmakers moved the primary election from early September several years ago. Turnout has averaged approximately 15 percent in 1996 and 1998.
A U.S. Supreme Court decision released Monday outlawing California's blanket primary system does not affect Utah. While Utah has an open primary system — any registered voter can vote in any party's primary — Utah voters can only vote in one party's primary.
But California voters can, for example, vote for a Republican governor candidate, a Democratic attorney general candidate. Because the high court didn't address Utah's type of primary, Tuesday's primary goes forward as usual without judicial constraint.
In the 2nd District race, both Cook and Smith worked over the weekend greeting voters. Cook went to Kmart stores in the district, which includes the east side of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County.
Smith jogged along the route of the Taylorsville Dayzz Parade while supporters passed out literature at the Salt Lake City Arts Festival.
Smith, a millionaire through his Internet firm, also loaned his campaign another $15,000 last Thursday, last-minute Federal Election Commission reports show. Smith has loaned his campaign a total of $524,000 since he entered in the race in March.
A Deseret News/KSL-TV poll published over the weekend shows the 2nd District a toss-up. Pollster Dan Jones & Associates found 47 percent support for Cook, 43 percent for Smith among registered voters who said they were going to pick up a GOP ballot Tuesday or who said they were going to vote but didn't know which ballot, Republican or Democrat, they were going to pick up.
Civility has reigned throughout the Leavitt-Davis race, and nothing changed over the weekend.
"This has been an issues-oriented campaign," Leavitt spokesman Michael Mower said.
Davis campaign manager Daniel Marriott echoed those sentiments.
"We definitely have our beef with what the Leavitt administration has done, but we're trying to keep it less personal," he said.
Both candidates will spend Monday and Tuesday urging people to vote. Though the latest Desert News polls show Davis trailing badly, Marriott is maintaining a never-say-die attitude.
"Anything can happen in a primary," he said. "Anything."
E-MAIL: bbjr@desnews.com ; romboy@desnews.com