| Emery County Commissioner Ira Hatch votes on the new Diebold machine. |
The Emery County voters went to the polls on June 27 in the primary election. Out of 7,245 voters county wide only 1,355 cast their ballots. The new Diebold voting machines were used in the primary election. Gordan Topham and Kay McIff faced off in the legislative race for the seat formerly held by Brad Johnson. McIff received 599 votes to Tophams 310.
In the county commissioner race for the seat now held by Commissioner Ira Hatch, the two Republican candidates Eric Anderson and Jeff Horrocks faced off. Horrocks received 599 votes to 386 votes for Anderson. Horrocks will now face democratic challenger Kent Wilson in the November general election.
County Clerk Brenda Dugmore said, “The elections went well, we didn’t seem to have any trouble. There was one representative here from Diebold to oversee the election. When I was out and about, the voters had a positive response to the new machines. There was one machine in Green River that we took out of service because of a problem with printing, but we have since checked it out and it’s now fine. There were a few screen calibration problems that need to be worked out. Overall things have been very good. We have had no trouble with the machines. We took all the machines out the morning of the primary election and they were under surveillance at all times.
“We ran the test logs verifying the results, and even waiting for the Green River machines to get back, we still had the results verified and out by 10:15 p.m. The cards are removed from the machines and put into the server which is upstairs in the old courtroom. The public was welcome there and we had a few people on hand to observe.
“We are very happy with this first go and all and all it was a quiet day. The voter turnout was 18 percent. In the general election of 2002 the voter turnout was 65 percent and that primary was 27 percent. In November of 2004 the turnout was 68 percent and that June primary was 14 percent. So, we are up from the primary of 2004 but lower that the 2002 primary.
“Our judges did very well. They were all happy. They said it was much easier than dealing with the paper ballots. They all did a good job. We are ready for November now. We have a much better idea how much time it takes and what to expect,” said Dugmore.