Vote by Mail

Grand County conducts their elections all by vote by mail. Ballots for the election will go out approximately 3 weeks prior to the election. This allows all voters to be informed on the issues and vote ballots at their convenience. Voters always have the choice to either mail back their ballot or deliver it to the dropbox location. Ballots will need to be post marked no later than the day before Election Day, or dropped off at the Clerk/Auditor's office by 8 p.m. on Election Day.
 
Will your Vote remain confidential? Yes, our State Constitution ensures your right to a secret ballot. We make sure that we have processes and procedures in place to ensure the separation of personal identifiers (such as the voter's name, signature and address) prior to ballot tabulation.


The Vote by Mail Process

1. Receive your ballot
Your ballot will be mailed out approximately three weeks prior to the election. To receive a ballot, your voter registration mailing address needs to be current. You can review and make changes to your address on vote.utah.gov or contact our office at 435-259-1321. 
 
 If you are a registered voter and did not receive your ballot, please contact us at 435-259-1321. 
 
2. Vote your Ballot
Your ballot packet will include a ballot, instructions insert, a secrecy envelope and a return envelope. Follow the instructions that accompany your ballot. If you need a replacement ballot, please contact our office at 435-259-1321
 
3. Return your Ballot
Your ballot must be:
     -Postmarked no later than the day before Election Day;
     -Returned in person to 125 East Center Street by 8 p.m. on Election Day.


Ballot Processing and Secrecy
It is essential to the integrity of an election that ballot processing be accurate and transparent, while maintaining your right to a secret ballot. After you return  your voted ballot, we, your county elections department follows this ballot counting process:
 
1. Your signature on the outer return envelope is checked by trained election workers against the signature on file with your voter registration, in order to ensure that the signatures match and you are the one voting your ballot.
 * If your signature is missing or does not match what we have on record, we will make an effort to contact you prior the Election to have you correct this.   This process is referred to as 'ballot curing'
 2. You are credited for voting in that election. This ensures that only one ballot from each voter is counted. 
 3. When ballots are ready to be tabulated, the outer return envelope, which identifies the voter, will be separated from the voted ballot contained inside. Once this separation is complete, the ballots can not be traced back to the voter.
 4. All ballots are inspected to make sure the scanning machine can read the ballot. Our scanning equipment is tested and audited prior to the election to ensure that it is working properly.
 5. Ballots are then sent through the scanning machine to count (or 'tabulate') the vote and final results will be displayed on the state website.

 
Grand County has implemented the following controls to ensure a safe, secure, by-mail election. 

  • Throughout the entire process of gathering, transportation, verification, processing and tabulation, all ballots are under lock and key unless being handled by authorized elections personnel. 
  • No ballot is ever handled by one person alone. There are always two elections workers present. Reconciliation forms ensure that no ballot is misplaced. 
  • Every voter's signature is manually compared to the signatures in the state voter database. If the signatures do not match, we contact the voter for verification/correction. 
  • Return envelopes are designed to preserve the secrecy of the ballot. They prevent election workers from viewing the ballot while the signature is verified. Only when we begin the ballot scanning process is the ballot envelope opened,.  The ballot itself has no identifying markers on it.
  • The computer that tabulates election results is stored in a locked room and can not connect to any network or the Internet.