We talked with Grand County Clerk Gabriel Woytek about how the eastern Utah county's election day has been.
Tom Williams: County Clerk Gabriel Woytek on the line with us. Gabriel, are you there?
Gabriel Woytek: Hi, there. Yes, I'm here.
Tom Williams: Hey, thanks for taking some time. I know it's very busy for you as a county clerk. How are things looking in Grand County in terms of the voting?
Gabriel Woytek: Yeah, really good. We had a really strong turnout here. We're looking at up over 80% of active registered voters, maybe, quite possibly, over 85% which is not uncommon down here in Grand and actually in 2016 we're up over 94% of turnout. And yeah, just I would say that I'm, quite frankly, moved by the way that everyone was on their best behavior here, and you know, and just you know, really a great display of civility and no concerns whatsoever at our polling place here.
Damon Cann: Love to hear that; that's great. Are your lines all cleared out and finished with everyone voting in the county down there in Grand?
Gabriel Woytek: Yeah, absolutely. We were down to a trickle in the last hour, and we were able to really focus on getting into our processing and try to get to a result as soon as we can.
Tom Williams: You say you might hit 85%, that's spectacular. How does that compare with past recent election cycles?
Gabriel Woytek: Yeah, the '22 we didn't get over 80% we were right around 75% if I can recall correctly. So, as I was saying before, we do have a tradition of really strong turnouts down here in Grand in Moab, that's our main municipality here, and we have one poll center. So relatively small population, but a very active one.
Tom Williams: So, a lot of tradition for turnout. That's great.
Damon Cann: Is there anything in particular that you wish voters maybe understood better about the election administration process that you are have been working on and will continue working on in the days ahead.
Gabriel Woytek: Yeah, I mean, I think just just in, just in terms of us being able to, you know, demonstrate the process of verification and processing that we go through with every mail ballot and every opportunity we get, we are able to sort of lift the curtain and show people how we verify, and we audit the verification, and then we audit the audit. And you know, there's this, there's several layers of verification and confirmation that we do to secure our elections. And I think just letting people know that they can come in and we and we can, we can show them, we can show them the ropes and just show them everything. And I think that's the most powerful tool that we have, and sort of building people's confidence.
Tom Williams: Well, Gabriel, Woytek, Grand County Clerk, thanks for taking some time.
Gabriel Woytek: You're welcome. Thank you.
Tom Williams: Appreciate that.
