Preliminary results of Utah's Super Tuesday showed an unexpectedly low turnout for Republican voters compared to the last two elections.
ksltv.com
Preliminary results of Utah’s Super Tuesday showed an unexpectedly low turnout for Republican voters compared to the last two elections.
According to Thursday’s report released by the Utah Republican Party, a total of 85,797 votes were cast for Republican presidential candidates on March 5. Only 10% of republican voters in the state.
In 2016, the Utah Republican Party used caucus meetings to select a presidential nominee, with
191,330 votes cast among the
603,479 active registered Republicans at that time—equalling 31.7% of GOP voters arriving at the polls.
Turnout grew during the 2020 election as the Utah Republican Party returned to a government-operated primary with mail-in ballots. According to voting data,
344,852 votes were cast, representing 48.6% of the
710,175 active registered Republicans during that election.
During Super Tuesday, many Republican
voters told KSL TV that they left their caucus meetings early and did not vote due to poor meeting management.
While some locations reported no problems, locations like Brighton High School and Fort Herriman Middle School had long lines and slow computers.
One voter, Bret McCormick, told KSL TV that he gave up after attempting to vote at Brighton High School.
“There was just a lot of confusion,” he said. “Which line should I be in? Where do I go? What do I do? How do I access the site? There was just not any control. There was no control.”
Carole Bonner, from Helper, told KSL TV she didn’t have access to a cell phone and could not navigate the QR codes and website that volunteers were directing her to.
“The frustration was real. I went home and said to my husband, ‘Wow, I think we are done,'” Bonner said.
In an interview with KSL TV, Axson acknowledged that the caucus didn’t run smoothly, and things could have run better. He said the biggest issue was that the computer system crashed over 20 minutes.
