Federal Judge Denies Request To Count Late Postmarked Mail-in Ballots in Utah GOP Congressional Primary
A federal judge rejected a request from a GOP primary candidate for Utah’s 2nd Congressional District, Colby Jenkins, who sought to halt today’s certification of the state’s election results and require certain counties to accept mail-in ballots he alleged were wrongfully excluded from the vote total.
The Friday ruling stems from a lawsuit filed last week by Jenkins and eight voters challenging the rejection of approximately 1,171 mail-in ballots cast before the state’s June 25 Republican primary election across five counties.
As of July 9, Jenkins trailed his incumbent opponent Rep. Celeste Moy (R) by only 214 votes.
Jenkins argued that ballots mailed by voters prior to Election Day, but postmarked after the election due to processing delays by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), should still be counted.
The lawsuit underscored that the mail-in ballots in question were sent to the USPS’s Las Vegas Distribution Facility to be postmarked prior to being returned to Utah election officials — a factor that Jenkins says contributed to the delay for voters in certain counties whose mail first gets processed by postal facilities in Nevada as opposed to Utah.
The lawsuit maintained the exclusion of the contested mail-in ballots violates state law and the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause since it creates a class of voters who are disenfranchised despite the fact they deposited their ballots on time and only applies burdens to voters in certain counties.
According to local reporting, Judge David Nuffer ruled from the bench on Friday that Jenkins did not produce sufficient evidence to warrant delaying today’s election certification deadline. Jenkins’ campaign says it will file a request for a recount following Monday’s statewide tally of election results.