Justin Jones is the executive director of the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy at the Orem-based Utah Valley University. He’s studied Utah elections in the past and says he’s impressed with the state’s mail-in voting system.
“Our students and faculty visited county clerks and they walked us through the process, and it's fascinating. They are very careful,” Jones said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” March 13. “[Election officials] are trying to be very transparent in the way elections work. The whole room [where ballots are counted] is surrounded by glass, and people can observe the counting. Election officials want people to visit them. They want to answer the public's questions regarding this.”
Utah made vote-by-mail its primary method in 2020. Lawmakers are now re-examining that choice. Late in the 2026 legislative session, the House passed voter ID requirements that would have restricted mail-in-elections, but the Senate blocked the changes.
Instead, lawmakers have directed the Herbert Institute to conduct a $100,000 study to compare the state’s mail-in-voting system to similar methods in other states, and examine the accuracy of Utah voter rolls.
Researchers will also look into a legislator’s claims that deceased voters remain registered and may have voted in Utah elections, Jones said.
“We're going to see if that's happened,” he said. “I mean, there is a lag between when the ballots are mailed out and when Election Day happens. I have aging parents, and recently, in-laws that passed away. They voted and passed away before Election Day. So things like that can happen, but is it happening at a high percentage? We can look into that.”
Nationwide, election security is a contentious issue ahead of the year’s midterms. Congress is currently debating the Trump Administration's voter ID law, the SAVE Act, sponsored by Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee.
Jones says researchers at the Herbert Center are excited to examine the issue in Utah.
“We have a group of students that are familiar [with these issues], former legislative interns and others who will work alongside a couple of faculty members throughout the summer,” Jones said. “We have a budget. We're able to travel not only around the state, but we may need to visit some other states and bring experts in. So we're very excited about this opportunity.”
The research will be presented to the Legislature’s Government Operations Interim Committee when complete.