Fourth District Court Judge Shawn Howell ruled in favor of Wasatch County in the lawsuit between Granger and Wasatch County school board candidate Tom Stone.
In her ruling at the evidentiary hearing Wednesday, Dec. 18, Howell said the requirements of Utah law are clear, and Granger acted correctly by disqualifying Stone when he missed a financial disclosure deadline in October.
“The petitioner’s disqualification was required under the law because the petitioner, I find, had a clear, independent statutory duty to strictly comply with the financial disclosure deadlines, and he did not do so,” she said.
Howell’s decision comes a month after a different judge granted a temporary restraining order, pausing any action in the school board race between Tom Stone and fellow candidate Brad Ehlert. The restraining order meant neither candidate could be certified the winner until Howell issued her ruling.
The lawsuit centered on how Granger handled late financial disclosures. Stone argued she waited too long to disqualify him. He turned in his financial report two days after the Oct. 29 deadline, and the county clerk notified him he’d been disqualified more than two weeks later, on Nov. 14.
The general election was Nov. 5.
When Stone filed as a candidate in January 2024, he signed paperwork attesting that he would meet all the financial disclosure requirements.
During Wednesday’s evidentiary hearing, deputy county attorney Shelby Thurgood said Granger had no choice but to disqualify Stone when he missed the deadline.
“The clerk did exactly what she was supposed to under the law,” she said.
Thurgood said Stone should have known about the deadline even without a reminder from Granger.
Any reminders are a courtesy, not mandated by law. Stone received emails from the clerk’s office through the June primaries, but Granger acknowledged an October reminder accidentally left him out.
Meanwhile, Stone’s attorney, Todd Weiler, argued the county waived its right to disqualify Stone by waiting so long after the general election. He also brought up an alleged mistake with a recent property tax appeal Stone filed.
“What we've heard here is that this office makes mistakes, and they’ve made more than one mistake when it comes to Mr. Stone,” he said.
Howell commented that all sides could have handled the situation better, but the legal requirements were clear.
“I think human error was on parade here,” she said. “But I cannot come to any other legal conclusions based upon the language of the statute.”
She said creating an exception for Stone, as his attorney requested, would not be appropriate for the court to do.
“I find that it, in asking the court to craft exceptions that are not included, is asking the court to go outside of its role,” she said. “The court is not here to make law, and I think it would be asking the court to engage in layers of conjecture or lawmaking. And that is not my role to create exceptions, no matter how artfully argued.”
Howell’s ruling means that ballots for Stone will not be counted, and Brad Ehlert will be certified the winner of the race.
Prior to being disqualified, Stone was leading with 42% of the vote, with ballots left to count.
