| Orangeville Mayor Bart Cox votes in the presidential primary. |
Emery County voters took to the polls on Feb. 5 to participate in their first presidential primary. Utah became part of the Super Duper Tuesday phenomenon as they had the chance to voice their choice for the presidential election in November.
Deputy Clerk Carol Cox said on election day, they had been out since 5 a.m. preparing the machines for the voters. Fifty voters in Emery County participated in the early voting process where they can come directly into the county clerk/auditors office and place their votes. Cox attributes all the interest in the presidential primary to media coverage of the event prior to election day.
On election day, county officials were on duty all day helping the election run smoothly. Clinton Olsen took the voting machines to Green River and spent the day there helping the polling workers. He then brought the machines back to Castle Dale after the polls closed. The polls were open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. to ensure voters plenty of time to get to their assigned polling places.
Once the voters arrived at the polling place they could request a democratic ballot or a republican ballot. The democrats held a semi-open primary where independent voters and democratic voters can vote on this ballot, but Republican voters cannot. The democrats awarded 23 delegates statewide. The choices for the democrats were: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher J. Dodd, John Edwards, Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Frank Lynch, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson. Even if a candidate had since dropped out of the race, they were still listed on the ballot. Past democratic winners in Utah included: John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000. Democrats campaigning in Utah this year included, Bill and Chelsea Clinton and Barack and Michelle Obama.
The republicans also had a semi-open primary where independents could vote and republicans, but not democrats. The republicans awarded 36 delegates statewide. Mitt Romney has campaigned in Utah. Those on the republican ballot included: Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson.
The IT department and the clerk’s office work overtime on election day to ensure the results are tabulated as soon after the polls close as possible. The voting machines were collected from each polling place and returned to the county building for tabulation. The data from each machine is downloaded into the mainframe computer. Brenda Dugmore, county clerk and Jeff Guymon, head of the IT department removed the computer card from each of the voting machines. The cards were inserted into the computer card reader which transferred the data to the mainframe computer program. When all of the computer cards had been read by the computer card reader the results were printed out. Others involved in bringing the machines back to the county building were Tamra Humphrey, Carol Cox, Mary Huntington and Clinton Olsen. The machines are put back into storage after each use where they are kept under lock and key.
The resolution committee is made up of Shaunnie Price, Stacie Decker and Diane Bott, they are responsible for examining and counting all absentee ballots.
Emery County had a 31 percent voter turnout with 1,970 ballots cast. In the republican contest: Giuliani received 6 votes; Hucabee 49; Hunter, 4; Keyes 2; McCain, 118; Paul, 22; Romney 1,363; Thompson, 8; Romney led the republicans with 86.70 percent of the Emery County vote.
In the democratic side of the race, Biden, 2 votes; Clinton, 170; Dodd, 1; Edwards, 24; Lynch, 1; Obama, 188; Richardson, 2; Obama let the democrats in Emery County taking 48.45 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 43.81 percent.
Statewide Romney was the winner on the republican side and Obama on the democratic side.