By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
David Leavitt, along with three other incumbents, will no
longer serve the county as an elected official after January
2003.
After all absentee and provisional ballots&emdash;a total
of 34 ballots&emdash;were counted, the final tally left
Leavitt 22 votes away from tieing the vote.
The ballots were opened, and taken to the office of Glenn
Greenhalgh, county computer superintendent, where the
electronic ballot counter is set up, for the final
count.
The procedure was the usual followed during the annual
canvass of the votes done by Juab County Commissioners
following each election, By state law, the vote is canvassed
each election.
Leavitt, Republican incumbent county attorney, and Jared
Eldridge, Democrat challenger, were just 16 votes away from
one another with the edge going to Eldridge on Tuesday, Nov.
5.
Of the 38 possible ballots, four were not counted.
"An absentee ballot must be postmarked no later than
election day, and one came in with a postmark one day after
the election," said Pat Ingram, county clerk/auditor.
All absentee ballots received after Tuesday, Nov. 5, are
checked for the postmark.
"One ballot came without the affidavit, even though it
came in good time," she said.
Another came in without the needed signature on the back
and the fourth was discarded by commissioners when all three
agreed that the signature did not match the application
signature.
The voters from Callao, who do not have a polling place
and vote by mail, are the one exception to required
application signatures. The clerk's office retains a
signature file for those voters.
The Nov. 18 county-wide canvass did not net enough
absentee ballots for any candidate to change the
outcome.
Eldridge had 1,376 votes to Leavitt's 1,354 votes. Of
those voting, 50.40 percent voted for Eldridge and 49.60
percent voted for Leavitt.
Had voters turned out in better numbers, the outcome may
have been different, or it may have just been more of the
same.
Of the 4,917 registered voters in 12 precincts in Juab
County, 2,842 ballots were cast. That meant that 57.80
percent of eligible registered voters actually voted.
Those who voted a straight party ballot were mostly
Republicans who had 220 straight votes as opposed to the
Democratic party which had 130 straight ticket votes. The
Green Party received 3 straight party votes and the
Libertarian Party received 21 votes.
Juab County Sheriff and 22-year incumbent, David Carter,
a Democrat, was defeated by his challenger, Alden Orme, a
Republican, by a small margin.
Carter did pick up a couple of votes because Orme was
ahead by 48 votes election night and the final vote left
Orme 46 votes ahead.
Joseph Bernini, commissioner, said a recount vote can
only be called for if the voter spread is closer.
"The total difference in the vote must be at least one
vote different per each precinct," Bernini said. "That would
be a total difference of 12 votes in Juab County."
The votes would not need to come one from each precinct
but would be for a total of 12.
Carter said, even had the vote been closer&emdash;just 12
votes apart&emdash;he would still not have requested a
recount.
"The way I look at it, if that many people don't want me
as Sheriff, I'm in the wrong job," said Carter.
A recount, while paid for by the county, must be
requested by the candidate before it is ever undertaken.
Bernini, also a Democrat and a long-time commissioner,
was defeated by Republican challenger Neil Cook. Jim
Maxwell, also in the race as an unaffiliated challenger, was
defeated.
Bernini, who has been a commissioner for 22 years,
received 950 votes, Cook received 1,047 votes and Maxwell
received 648.
Several of the ballots included write-in candidates
requiring that portion of the ballot be tallied by hand.
Commissioners worked together to total the write-in votes
which were all for Tintic School District races.
In Tintic School Board District #5, Glenn Allred picked
up 5 more votes and Dennis Timm gained one more vote. Timm
was still the winner with 42 votes against Allred's 16
votes.
Ingram, Democrat, retained her office against Republican
challenger, Neal Menlove. Ingram ended up with 1,511 votes
for 54.89 percent against Menlove's 1,242 or 45.11
percent.
On the unchallenged incumbent list were Robert Steele,
Republican county commission; Shirl Nichols, Democrat,
assessor; Craig Sperry, Democrat, recorder, and Jean Bowles,
Republican, county treasurer.
Sharla Williams, Juab County Justice, received 2,154
affirmative retention votes and 254 negative votes.
Ingram said, the provisional vote, new to state voting
law this year, involved mostly those who were registered
voters in one precinct, but because of changes made in
boundaries, should have been moved to another precinct.
"They would go to the old voting district where they
would be given a provisional ballot," she said. "My office
verified each of those voters and found them all to be
registered."
David Leavitt, county attorney, was not present for the
vote canvass because he had been sent on assignment to Salt
Lake City by the Juab County Commission to perform county
business. He, therefore, was not available for comment.
Final
election totals!
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