Cache County Clerk David Benson held a public press meeting on Friday to address questions and concerns about controversies surrounding the clerk’s office in recent months.
Benson focused on three main issues he wanted to address in the meeting.
“One is the stop or resume mailed ballot form that we posted on our website. The other is the review by the lieutenant governor's office. And finally, the investigation that I requested from the Cache County Attorney's Office,” he said.
The group of about 20 constituents asked Benson about a recent review from the lieutenant governor’s office that says the office found an “unprecedented lack of controls, widespread violations of Utah election law."
Benson said many of the practices highlighted by the lieutenant governor’s office as violations were inherited from the previous clerk and he has since made changes to those practices.
He also responded to concerns regarding his administrative leave during an investigation he requested from the Cache County Attorney’s Office to look into the violations found by the lieutenant governor’s office.
“I voluntarily recused myself, so that the investigation would go unhindered and be as thorough and as quick as we could make it,” he said.
Much of the remainder of the meeting focused on election practices including the efficacy and trustworthiness of Utah’s mail-in ballot and electronic voting systems.
He highlighted his office’s recent addition of a form where voters can choose to stop receiving mail-in ballots or begin receiving them again if they had previously chosen to stop getting them.
Benson said Utah’s election system is complicated and the technology used for mail-in voting can be challenging.
"There is a certain level of challenge with using all those machines," he said.
"When I was campaigning during the special election, I made it very clear that I do prefer voting in person on paper on a single election day. So if I had to choose between voting on a machine or on paper, I would choose paper," he said.
Benson said he’s invited the lieutenant governor’s office to monitor upcoming elections in Cache County in March, June and November to see the improvements he says they’ve made since the report was released in early December.
