Utah
Conservatives have lost trust in elections. Here’s how Utah leaders are trying to help
Utah leaders are at the forefront of a nationwide initiative to increase election confidence among conservative voters.
The state’s top election officers, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and her director of elections, Ryan Cowley, spoke at a Sutherland Institute event on Tuesday along with the man behind an ambitious project to bring together hundreds of election administrators and scholars across the country to promote “a conservative agenda for democracy.”
Scott Warren, who leads the joint program from the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the center-right think tank R Street, presented the initiative’s “conservative principles for building trust in elections” in a message that was echoed by Henderson, Cowley and former Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.
“Voter access and ballot security are paramount, especially in the age of some saying elections are illegitimate or have been stolen,” Herbert said in a prepared video statement. “Unfortunately, this has become an all too common feature of campaigns and it undermines our system of self government.”
Herbert called on attendees to adopt the principles developed by the Agora Institute and R Street partnership, which Henderson and the Sutherland Institute have been involved with since shortly after it was formed about 18 months ago. The principles are: 1) publicly affirming the integrity of elections in Utah and across the country, 2) using transparency and outreach to boost election confidence, and 3) inviting continuous improvement in election processes to increase trust in election results.
As part of the event held at Utah Valley University, Warren released new polling data commissioned by the partnership on Utahn’s election confidence, candidate preferences and media consumption.
Do Utahns trust federal elections?
The poll, conducted by Gallup in March, found that a majority of Utahns who identify as “conservative” are not confident that President Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election. Only 17% of Utah conservatives are “very confident” that Biden won fairly and 20% were “confident.” Over 30% were “not too confident” and another 30% were “not at all confident.”
The distinction between conservatives who believe Biden’s win was legitimate and those who don’t correlates with other divides among conservatives. Utah conservatives who believe Biden won are more likely to have voted in 2020 (82%) than those who don’t believe he was the legitimate winner (62%), the poll found. They are also more likely to have always been a Republican, 70%-61%.
The divide extends to feelings surrounding the 2024 election: 90% of Utah conservatives who believe Biden’s win was legitimate, and 53% of those who don’t, have some or a lot of confidence that other states’ legislatures will certify the winning presidential candidate in 2024 “regardless of party.” 51% of Utah conservatives who believe Biden’s win was legitimate, and just 19% of those who don’t, think that Democrats will accept the 2024 presidential election if they lose.
Utah conservatives who believe Biden won the 2020 election are unique in the nation in describing themselves as Romney Republicans (31%) or Never Trump Republicans (25%) and are twice as likely, at 39%, than that same cohort in any other state polled by Johns Hopkins and R Street to say they will vote for someone other than Trump and Biden in 2024, the poll found.
Nearly 80% of Utah conservatives who don’t believe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square say they will vote for Trump in 2020, compared to just 36% of conservatives who have confidence in the results of the 2020 election.
Do Utahns trust state elections?
Utahns are much more united in their perception of their own state’s election integrity.
Election policy scholar Derek Monson presented a Sutherland Institute poll conducted by Y2 Analytics in February which found over 70% of Utahns have confidence that the state’s decade-old vote-by-mail system counts ballots accurately, produces fair outcomes and is secure.
The same percentage of Republicans say they like how vote-by-mail allows them to avoid lines at polling places but around half of Republicans are worried about mail-in ballots being hard to track or being sent to the wrong home.
“There’s a high level of confidence that elections in Utah are accurate and receive fair outcomes and that they’re secure,” Monson said.
The state’s mature vote-by-mail laws and willingness to pursue reforms to increase election integrity have made Utah an example for the country on election administration, Monson said. This is why the Agora Institute-R Street initiative convened officials and academics from across the country in Park City a year ago to talk about how Utah election officials are doing their job and “persuading Republicans to kind of resist the erosion of trust in things like election outcomes.”
Henderson and Cowley invited Utahns to come and see the processes that build democracy to remind them who it is that makes elections tick: their neighbors.
“As we move into the 2024 election, it’s essential for all of us to continue to promote Utah’s strong track record of election integrity while we strive to continue to improve things so citizens can continue to have high levels of trust in our voting system,” Henderson said in a prepared video statement. “It’s important to remember that elections are not done at a national or even a state level. They’re performed at the local level by our neighbors and members of our communities.”
Cowley, who oversaw elections in Summit and Weber counties before joining the lieutenant governor’s office, lamented the loss of institutional knowledge that has taken place with 20 of Utah’s 29 county clerks leaving since 2020 because of the unprecedented pressure and harassment directed toward local election officers.
According to Cowley, distrust in elections is bipartisan and has more to with whatever the results were of the most recent election than with a faulty election system.
“I think it’s honestly a mechanism of when the polling is done,” Cowley said. “If you were to go back four years, when you have a Republican President and Democrats lost the election, I think the polling would show probably an inverse number.”
Cowley said the best way to improve confidence in elections is to increase transparency surrounding election processes, invite community members to watch their neighbors oversee vote counting and gradually reform the election system based on public feedback, similar to how the state’s vote-by-mail system was developed over two decades.
Tuesday’s event included a panel on supporting election administrators with Idaho Secretary of State Phil McGrane, a breakout session on potential election reforms and a discussion on media reporting and election trust featuring Deseret News executive editor Doug Wilks, Salt Lake Tribune executive editor Lauren Gustus and KSL NewsRadio Inside Sources host Boyd Matheson.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah athletics is making a notable change to the Huntsman Center gameday setup, but the move is about more than where the team sits.
The Runnin’ Utes are moving the team bench from the east side of the Jon M. Huntsman Center to the west side, returning the bench to the side it occupied during the Rick Majerus era. The change will also move the MUSS and band from the west side to the east side.
The shift is part of a larger effort by Utah Athletics to improve the student-section experience, create a more consistent setup inside the Huntsman Center and better connect the arena to the university’s growing College Town Magic initiative.
Enhancing The MUSS And Fan Experience
Nowlin said the primary motivation behind the change is improving the MUSS and the overall fan experience.
“The reason we’re doing this is we want to enhance the MUSS,” Utah’s Deputy Athletics Director & Chief Revenue Officer, Patrick Nowlin said. “As an ongoing effort, we’ve been working on for the past two years, how do we enhance the fan experience?”
One issue Utah identified was that the MUSS had been located in different areas for different events. Moving the student section and band to the east side gives the department a more consistent location to build around.
“We wanted to create a better fan experience,” Nowlin said. “We wanted to be able to have one spot that we can build on, which means we can brand. We can enhance everything about it.”
The move also ties directly into College Town Magic. Nowlin said the area around the Huntsman Center will include more than 2,900 total beds, including more than 1,400 new beds, giving students a direct path from nearby housing to the student-section entrance.
“There’s over 2,900 new beds that are right there, which will be right at the branded entrance, right where the student section is,” Nowlin said. “They don’t have to go far at all. So it’s just a walk straight down from the dorm, right in the door.”
And according to Utah’s Patrick Nowlin, the move is not limited to men’s basketball.
“It’s not just men’s basketball. It’s all Huntsman Center events,” Nowlin said.
A Nod To Utah Basketball History
While the move is primarily about fan experience, there is also a clear basketball-history component.
The west-side bench location is where Utah sat during the Majerus era, when the Runnin’ Utes were one of the top programs in the country and the Huntsman Center had a different level of edge. Alex Jensen was part of that era as a player, and now, as Utah’s head coach, the move reconnects the current program with one of its most successful periods.
Nowlin said the historical connection was part of the conversation, even if it was not solely Jensen’s decision.
“Yeah, it’s a nod to history,” Nowlin said. “I think Alex, him being here, he’s a steward of the program. There’s a lot of history to having it on that side.”
Still, Nowlin made clear the change was not simply pushed through by Jensen.
“It wasn’t a push from him,” Nowlin said. “It was a concerted effort from everybody to where, how do we create an area that the MUSS can have, but also how do we lean into our history, but still move forward in a way that we can honor that, but create an unbelievable environment.”
That is the heart of the move. Utah is trying to bring back a piece of its basketball identity while also reworking the building for the future.
How Fans Will Be Impacted
The change will affect some season-ticket holders, donors and fans seated near the current bench, MUSS and band areas, but Utah tried to limit the disruption.
Nowlin said the department spent months working through the seating impact and expects fewer than 200 accounts to be directly affected. Those accounts are in sections T, U and V.
“This wasn’t something that just came about,” Nowlin said. “We’ve been working on this for a few months now, and we wanted to find a way that we could minimize the accounts that were directly impacted, but still create the fan experience change we were after.”
Utah’s plan is to work individually with affected fans and mirror their seat location as closely as possible on the other end of the court.
“If you’re on one end and now you’re going on the other end, we will work with you to get you in the seat that is similar to where you were and allow you to have the same experience you’ve had, just on the other end of the court,” Nowlin said.
Utah will also hold a virtual seat-selection process from July 7-17, allowing fans who want to move to choose from available options.
“We’re going to take care of everybody, but we’re also going to allow people the choice and the freedom to be able to make the changes they want to make,” Nowlin said. “We want to create every opportunity we can to give our fans opportunities to choose their own experience.”
Not Part Of The Huntsman Renovation
The bench and MUSS move is not directly tied to the larger Huntsman Center renovation discussions. Nowlin said the change is instead connected to College Town Magic and Utah’s effort to improve the student and fan experience inside the building.
“It does not have to do with the renovation, but it does have to do with College Town Magic,” Nowlin said.
The move could create some new seating and premium opportunities, particularly around courtside and floor seating. Nowlin said Utah is still evaluating those possibilities.
“By doing this, this will create additional opportunities for us on courtside and floor,” Nowlin said. “We’re also looking to how do we enhance our premium experience across the board. So this is a step in a process that will continue.”
The Bottom Line
Utah’s bench move is not just a nostalgic callback to the Rick Majerus era, and it is not just a seating chart adjustment. It is part of a broader effort to reshape the Huntsman Center experience.
The team bench is moving back to the west side, where Utah sat during some of the program’s most successful years. The MUSS and band are moving to the east side, where Utah believes it can build a stronger, more consistent student-section identity tied to College Town Magic.
For Utah Athletics, it is another step toward rethinking how the Huntsman Center looks, sounds and feels on game day. For Jensen, the move reconnects the program to its winning past.
The symbolism will matter to longtime Utah basketball fans. The logistics will matter to students, band members and season-ticket holders. But the larger goal is simple: make the building feel more intentional, more connected and more like home again.
Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.
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SALT LAKE CITY – The San Juan County assessor has resigned partway through his second term, following a recommendation that he be removed from office.
Rick Meyer’s resignation became effective on Monday, according to San Juan County Commissioner Lori Maughan. A copy of Meyer’s resignation letter was not immediately available.
This comes after the Utah State Tax Commission determined that Meyer had failed to follow the law and was “unfit to perform his duties.” In a letter last week to San Juan County commissioners, the tax commission recommended “the immediate removal of the San Juan County assessor from office to protect the public interest and restore the integrity of the property tax system in San Juan County.”
Among other things, Meyer was accused of failing to tax agricultural buildings, misclassifying property, and giving property tax exemptions to certain parcels, including vacant land, when he shouldn’t have.
The recommendation to remove Meyer from office was the first under a recent state law giving the Utah State Tax Commission more power to take corrective action against county assessors who aren’t doing their jobs properly. Assessors play a major role in the property tax process by determining the value of property throughout their counties.
Yet, it was unclear whether the San Juan County Commission could have actually removed Meyer from office had he not stepped down.
With Meyer’s resignation, the San Juan County Assessor’s Office has just one employee left. Deputy assessor Nathan Pitts will run the office until the San Juan County Republican Party recommends a replacement and the County Commission appoints one.
“It’s me holding down the fort here,” Pitts told KSL on Thursday, noting that he has spoken with the Utah Association of Counties and the state tax commission about plans for this interim period. “Everybody’s on board to assist and try to make it the best as we can, (but) I’ve definitely got my work cut out for me.”
Pitts said he does not plan to run for county assessor to replace his old boss.
“That is not my intention at all,” he said. “I’m quite content as a deputy assessor.”
Meyer was first elected as San Juan County assessor in 2020 and won reelection in 2024. His current term was set to conclude in 2029.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
FLAGSTAFF, AZ (AZFamily) — The Rock Canyon Fire, burning in northern Arizona near the border with Utah, doubled in size overnight to 4,512 acres and was 5% contained.
The fire has caused firefighters to evacuate hikers and campers in the area, and some roads in the Kaibab National Forest are closed.
People in Jacob Lake — less than 20 miles from the Rock Canyon Fire — say the new fire is stirring up anxiety after last year’s devastating fire season. They say they’re confident in firefighters, but after the trauma, they’re still holding their breath.
Memories of last year’s fires
For over 100 years, Jacob Lake Inn has been serving cookies to guests who want to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon or explore the Kaibab National Forest. Melinda Rich Marshall’s family has owned the inn since 1923.
Last year, they were evacuated during the White Sage Fire that burned close to 60,000 acres, and then the Dragon Bravo Fire, which destroyed nearly 150,000 acres, shut down the North Rim.
Now the Rock Canyon Fire has already burned thousands of acres north of the inn.
“I mean, honestly, our reaction was not again,” Rich Marshall said. “I mean, that’s really what it was.”
Rich Marshall said last year was hard enough, so once they heard about this new fire, it brought back bad memories.
“I’d say we have a little PTSD from it, seeing smoke and smelling smoke and all those things,” she said.
Fire burning in old burn scar
The Rock Canyon Fire was sparked over the weekend by a lightning strike.
Parts of it are burning in the White Sage burn scar. Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Dolores Garcia said old burn scars will usually slow down a new fire, but this time it’s actually fueling the flames.
“In some of those areas, we’re seeing quite a bit of fuels,” Garcia said. “We’re not seeing that the burn scar is helping much, especially with the winds as strong as they’ve been in some days and as dry as it’s been, those fuels are just tender and cured and really flammable.”
She said firefighters are attacking it from the ground and the air, but the high winds are limiting their ability to make water drops.
Hikers and campers were evacuated from the area. Garcia said she knows how stressful this must be to the surrounding communities after last year’s fires.
“We still understand that, it’s still a very fresh wound to many of the people who live up there, who’ve recreated up there for years,” she said. “That’s definitely at the forefront of our minds.”
Rich Marshall said while it’s scary, they have full trust in the firefighters.
“We’re really just grateful to see them and know the work that they are doing,” she said.
Rich Marshall said this is usually their peak season, but they’ve seen a bit of a slowdown even after the North rim reopened. She said people can support them by staying there or even just stopping in and getting some of their famous cookies.
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