It was a tough choice this year, Parkite George Maalouf said at the Kimball Junction library Tuesday.
This election day, the most important thing to him is elected officials’ honesty, at the national level.
“I feel when I talk to people about elections, they don't really have facts that they use to support their choices. It’s more about how they feel.” he told KPCW. “I don't feel like that's a good way of electing our officials.”
Maalouf voted early, like most of Summit County, but had driven his son to the polls so he could vote in person.
And as of Nov. 4, county clerks had received 19,983 ballots. And the last time they counted this year, there were 29,750 registered voters in Summit County.
Just 700 of the early ballots were from in-person voters, so Summit County demonstrated a clear preference for using mail ballots this year.
And if the mail-in voters are at all similar to in-person voters, they were most motivated by national issues this year.
“I mean, that's the number one issue. Do like direction of where our country's headed or not?,” one Coalville voter said. They voted for Trump and preferred not to be named.
Another self-described Trump "fan," Santiago Salazar, visited the polls on his lunch break. His friend was attempting to vote in Summit County but lives in Salt Lake City, and voters must vote in their county of residence. Their no. 1 issue is the economy.
"The no overtime tax ... the way the economy is going," Salazar said. "Everything's so damn expensive; it's ridiculous."
Summit County usually votes blue, and any Republicans tend to be concentrated on the rural eastside. Still, KPCW met single-issue voters at the Coalville polls who expressed a preference for Democrat positions: their priorities included women’s reproductive rights and marijuana legalization.
Pinebrook resident Tim Grizzell had three key issues: immigration, border security and women’s rights. He hopes "we decide it quickly, and it's not contested."
20-year-old Parkite Kyra Dossa voted for the first time this year.
“I feel very, very strongly about women's reproductive rights and women,” she told KPCW outside the Kimball Junction library. “It doesn't even matter who you're voting for, but I think you should vote—if you don't, you're not being heard.”
That’s despite describing herself as “not very political.” Dossa says she came to the polls because she had a clear idea of who she wanted for president and senate.
By noon Nov. 5, Summit County clerks had received 610 votes from polling stations, with more on the way.
