Tom Stone was on the general election ballot for the Wasatch County Board of Education seat to represent Midway families. He was competing against Brad Ehlert.
More than a week after Election Day, Stone was notified he’d been disqualified for failing to submit financial disclosures on time. Stone met the financial deadline for the primary, but told KPCW he did miss the Oct. 29 due date for the general election.
Prior to disqualification Thursday, Nov. 14, Stone was in the lead, with almost 42% of the votes compared to Ehlert’s nearly 39%. There were some ballots still left to count.
On Monday, Nov. 18, Stone filed a lawsuit against Wasatch County challenging his disqualification. His attorney also sought a temporary restraining order asking the county not to complete its canvass or certify election results until all votes for Stone are counted. An emergency hearing for the restraining order is scheduled for Tuesday morning at 8:30.
Stone argues county clerk-auditor Joey Granger failed to communicate with his campaign even as she emailed other candidates.
Emails shared with KPCW show Granger sent out disclosure deadline reminders on Oct. 2 and again Oct. 29. Stone was not listed as a recipient of either email.
Utah code states if a candidate fails to file a financial report, “the county clerk may send an electronic notice” giving the candidate 24 hours to submit the report before being disqualified. The law also says the clerk “shall disqualify the candidate and inform the appropriate election officials” if the candidate doesn’t meet the 24-hour deadline.
Stone turned in his financial disclosures two days late.
He said he feels Granger didn’t properly handle the situation.
“She’s an elected official who has violated the law, pretty much, and whether it be egregiously inept or malicious – that’s the question at hand,” he said.
Stone’s lawyer, Todd Weiler, said county elections officials should have notified Stone that he missed the deadline before Election Day Nov. 5.
“By waiting until nine days after the election, I think now they’re potentially disenfranchising 1,823 voters who voted for him,” he said.
Utah code doesn’t explicitly state a deadline for the county clerk to disqualify candidates, nor does it give a deadline for notifying voters. The law says that “if practicable,” disqualified candidates should be removed from the ballot before ballots are sent to voters.
Stone said he’s also concerned that he was disqualified after voters had cast their ballots and most votes had already been tallied.
“You can’t un-count votes,” he said.
Utah law prohibits the county from counting votes for a candidate who’s been disqualified. The rules also require the county to notify voters by email any time a candidate is disqualified. Stone’s lawsuit contends all of that should have happened before Election Day.
“Imagine if today someone announced that president[-elect] Trump had won the election, but now he’s being disqualified. You’d probably have riots in the streets,” Weiler said. “And while I don’t expect to have any riots in Midway, the same principle applies.”
County manager Dustin Grabau said the county still plans to canvass the election results and certify residents’ votes Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 4 p.m.
“Our understanding of state code is such that they will likely have to canvass the election where Tom Stone is not the winner, based on his disqualification,” he said.
He said the situation is “obviously not ideal,” but he believes the county is correctly applying state code.
Stone’s opponent, Brad Ehlert, said in a statement Monday he trusts the county clerk and county council to fulfill their responsibilities and follow state law. He said his focus remains on advocating for students, teachers and families.
Wasatch County clerk-auditor Joey Granger did not respond to KPCW’s calls for comment Monday.
Stone was not the only candidate disqualified from a school board race. Randall Lund was also notified Nov. 14 he was disqualified for failing to file his financial disclosure by the deadline. Lund was trailing to Kim Dickerson by about 23% Friday.
