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Only two of the 15 precincts in Morgan County are supposed to vote in the Utah Senate District 19 race — but all of them ended up with it on the ballot.
Unlike Donald Trump, no one sees that as an attempt to fix a race — and all sides say a proposed solution seems fair, as long as it is implemented as promised.
"We will send out postcards to the 13 districts where it should not have been on the ballot," said Morgan County Clerk Stacy Netz Clark.
It will tell the voters there that they do not actually live in Senate District 19 where incumbent Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, is being challenged by Democrat Deana Froerer of Huntsville.
Instead, they live in District 18 represented by Sen. Ann Millner, R-Ogden — where no election is being held this year.
Clark said voters will be asked to ignore that race on their ballot. If some vote in it anyway, those votes will not be counted. She said computers that count votes will be programmed to ignore the race in those precincts.
Meanwhile, votes will be counted as usual in the two precincts that actually are in District 19.
Clark said that when the problem was noticed, the lieutenant governor's office — which oversees elections in the state — was contacted and it recommended the solution. Clark said she is unsure what caused the problem with the ballots.
Froerer said she is fine with the solution, "as long as they do what is promised." She notes that Morgan County strongly leans Republican, so any extra votes cast there could especially hurt her as a Democrat. District 19 includes parts of Morgan, Weber and Summit counties.
"I'm pretty sure they didn't choose Morgan County to start some kind of rigging process," she said. "I want everyone to vote, and I don't want them to feel that anyone's side is trying to disrupt the process."
Christensen said he is also fine with the solution. "If that's the worst mistake that's made this election, then we're in pretty good shape."
Christensen has served 12 years in the Senate. Democrat Froerer is the sister-in-law of Rep. Gage Froerer, R-Huntsville. She said that makes for some interesting family dinner discussions.
Mark Thomas, state elections director for Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, said this is the second ballot problem found in the state this year.
He said in Juab County, a retention vote for Justice Court Judge Sharla T. Williams had not appeared on all ballots in the county as required. He said the county has sent out additional ballots to voters whose original ballots incorrectly omitted that election.