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Utah's listeners are Utah's voters.Utah Public Radio is proud to partner with our fellow public broadcasters throughout the state to bring you Vote Utah 2012, comprehensive election coverage that focuses on educating voters.Check in here throughout election season for interviews, debates, and news coverage from throughout the state.Also visit VoteUtah.org for candidate profiles, election results, and resources for informed voting.

Voter Turnout Remains A Struggle In The Beehive State

watchdog.org
Utah has consistently had some of the lowest voter turnout in the nation.

About 40 percent of Utahns who were eligible to vote cast their ballots on Tuesday, Nov. 4. This is a record-low for voter participation in Utah.  According to Justin Lee,  deputy director of elections for the Lieutenant Governor, the official measure will be known later this month.

“Some of it is estimating. One of the things we don’t know until all the votes and results are certified in a couple of weeks [is] what the final number will be,” he said. “Basically, what we’re doing is taking the number of active voters, then taking the number of people that voted and then just dividing that number up.”

Utah voters ranked among the least active during this year’s election season. The contest between Republican Mia Love and Democrat Doug Owens was the only race in the state that caught the attention of the national press. The lack of competitive races has contributed to decades-worth of low voter turnout, Lee said.

“It’s pretty well documented that over the past couple of decades that our voter turnout has been at the lower end in the country. The Fourth Congressional District, the Love-Owens race, had the highest turnout rate of the four congressional districts,” he said. “I think there’s something to be said there. If it’s a competitive race, people tend to get excited, tend to want to get out there and vote on it.”

The state government spent the months leading up to the midterm reaching out to voters in a variety of ways. The Campus Cup put Utah’s colleges and universities in a competition for student voters. The Road to Registration Tour made stops around the state to engage the general public. Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox appeared in a series of television commercials. Participation in civic life should be more than just about voting, Lee said.

“Some of it’s just anecdotal. What we hear is, there’s not a lot of really competitive races. I think – and other people think this, as well – that it’s the competitive races that really drive some turnout,” he said. “Some people think that the voting is sort of the end-all for civil participation. We approach it more like that’s a beginning. If we can get people to the polls they become more engaged.” 

In 2012, Utah ranked 39th in the nation in voter participation.