Republican Rep. Kera Birkeland has proposed a bill that would require Utahns to opt-in to mail-in voting. Starting in 2026, instead of automatically sending ballots to all registered voters, the bill would require citizens to opt-in online or on their ballot during this year’s election.
“For everyone who either isn't returning their ballots, throwing away their ballots or goes to the election polling location to vote, they can just, you know, not check a box and no longer worry about ballots,” Birkeland said.
According to Birkeland, this would clean up voter rolls by preventing ballots from going to people who don’t want to vote or would prefer to vote in person.
“It's a lot of time, a lot of resources, to send people things that aren't going to use them, don't want to use them," she said. "We don't have to just force-feed them the ability to vote. They either want to or they don't care.”
However, Summit County Clerk Eve Furse said most Utahns vote by mail. Almost 94% of people who voted in the General Election in 2022 voted by mail. In 2023 in Summit County, 99% of the votes were by mail.
Furse also said she’s confident the Utah Clerks Association does not support this bill and that it wouldn’t save money.
“We're of different parties and yet we all agree that the way we have it working is actually very efficient and effective," she said. "I think it's very telling that it's not the clerks’ suggesting we need to do it to save money.”
In fact, Furse said it might cost more money if this bill is passed. That’s because right now it’s easy for clerks to predict how many people will vote in person, so it’s easier to staff polling places. If Birkeland’s bill passes, it would be a lot harder to predict those numbers.
“We've spent a lot of time educating them about [vote] by mail, and there's going to be that sort of time lag of realizing they have to opt in if they want to get it, and so it will be a lot harder to predict all of that," Furse said. "That will cost a lot of money.”
Further, if residents want to opt out of mail-in voting, they already can. But Furse said even people who prefer to vote in person still often like to get a ballot. They can use it as a guide to help them determine how they want to vote.
Utah’s legislative session begins Jan. 16.
