While certifying this election’s results Nov. 19, Summit County Councilmember Canice Harte noted that both contested council races may have flipped if more people had voted.
In other words, the margins by which Democrats Roger Armstrong and Megan McKenna won were smaller than the number of people who didn’t vote for either choice in either race.
“If those people had voted in that race, it could have completely changed the results or made a difference,” Harte said.
Clerks call instances where voters don’t pick any candidate in a particular race “undervotes.”
In their race, Armstrong beat Republican Tory Welch by a little more than 1,100 votes, but there were 1,500-plus non-voters.
McKenna won versus Republican Ari Ioannides by just 340 votes. There were well over 1,600 undervotes.
Results in two board of education races also could have flipped.
In South Summit, Dan Eckert beat Garrett Carpenter by 56 votes to represent Kamas on the school board. But 113 people didn’t vote for either.
And in the Park City School District, Kathleen Britton had 321 more votes than Danny Glasser to represent part of the Snyderville Basin — 918 people didn’t vote.
Neither of Summit County’s ballot initiatives would have been flipped by undervotes though.
Voters overwhelmingly approved a new 0.5% sales tax to fund emergency services, which will go into effect next summer. And voters in northern Summit County rejected a $114 million bond to fund a new high school.
There were just over 26,000 ballots cast in Summit County this election, a turnout of 89.11%.
Voters cared more about national races: just 253 people o skipped casting a ballot for any presidential candidate.
According to The New York Times, Summit County, which typically votes blue, moved 4.2% to the right in the 2024 presidential election versus the 2020 election.
Click here to view the Summit County Clerk's Office's official 2024 election results.
