The Summit County Republican Party says it didn’t send the Nov. 3 text messages that endorsed Park City candidates Jack Rubin and Jeremy Rubell.
Local Democratic party leader Rory Swensen says his group also wasn’t involved in the texts, labelled “GOP Voting Alert.”
Summit County GOP chair Ari Ioannides said the party filed a formal complaint Saturday, asking state elections officials to investigate the messages.
“Rory and I both thought that it would make the most sense to escalate this to the lieutenant governor’s office, because that’s who handles these sorts of things,” he said.
The complaint says the texts did not include the required attribution stating who paid for the message, nor was it authorized by the Summit County GOP, since Park City races are nonpartisan.
The latest election results show Ryan Dickey is ahead of Jack Rubin in the race for mayor by less than half a percentage point.
“This race was close,” Ioannides said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen after the cure this week. I don’t know what the ultimate difference will be. But, you know, 11 votes – this definitely could have swayed the people.”
Ioannides said he hopes the lieutenant governor’s office can provide accountability.
“I think we owe it to ourselves and to the community to try and find out what happened,” he said.
The deadline for municipalities to certify the election results is Tuesday, Nov. 18.
