- Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson told the Deseret News earlier this week that he tracks how some local politicians cast their ballots – whether by mail, drop box or in person.
- Davidson says returning a ballot by mail isn’t as secure or safe as putting it in a drop box.
- An Eagle Mountain state representative said Davidson made remarks to her about how she submitted her ballot in the primary election.
Utah
'Concerning:' Utah County attorney confirms investigation into ballot tracking
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray confirmed Wednesday that his office is investigating Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson’s tracking of how elected officials cast their votes, first reported by the Deseret News.
“We’re looking into it. I’ve asked one of my investigators to look into the matter,” Gray said, after being informed by state Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork, that Davidson had told the Deseret News he knew that McKell had mailed in his primary ballot without a stamp because he tracked the voting method used by a “list of politicians.”
“It raises concerns to me, obviously,” Gray said. “It may be a matter of, do we need a legislative fix? The election laws are somewhat complicated and this isn’t something that we typically investigate. So we’re still pouring through those. It’s really kind of a legislative policy as to what they want disclosed and not disclosed. And at the end of the day, what do the people want.”
The county attorney said the investigation is “going to take a little time” and will also look into other allegations, including that some Utah County voters who mailed back their ballots without stamps were contacted by the clerk’s office. Gray said “it’s hard to say” whether it’s a criminal investigation at this point.
“It’s concerning. But again, I need to determine what the facts are, and whether or not there is a violation of the law. That’s my focus. It’s not a political (focus) and it doesn’t matter whether I’m concerned or not,” he said. “I just need to do my due diligence and make sure that the law has been complied with.”
‘Unsettling:’ Lawmaker says Utah County clerk knew she voted by mail
Also Wednesday, state Rep. Stephanie Gricius, R-Eagle Mountain, told the Deseret News that Davidson made a point of bringing up recently that she’d voted by mail in the June primary, an “unsettling” and “unusual” comment that has her asking whether new legislation is needed to protect voter privacy.
“Basically, he said something along the lines of, ‘Hey, if I remember right, you mailed your ballot in for the primary. I’m going to strongly encourage you to use a drop box for the general election.’ That was pretty much the end of conversation but it was at that point I figured out, ‘OK, he’s looked up how I sent in my ballot,’” Gricius said.
“I didn’t have time to get into that with him,” she said, because their brief exchange occurred at a state senate debate earlier this month where she was serving as a volunteer. Still, Gricius said, “it was a little unsettling. My first instinct was to question what other information about my ballot that he had.”
She also said she “found it unusual that it would come up. We weren’t talking about that at all when it was brought up,” she said. “Really, it was just that unsettling component of, well, do you know who I voted for? How did you find that information? What went into the process of you looking that up?”
Gricius said she reached out to a former employee in the clerk’s office “to see if that was information that was tracked normally or if that was something new and they explained the clerk’s office does keep track of how ballots are submitted as part of the chain of custody, but that he would have had to look me up individually to see my personal information.”
She also contacted an elections law attorney in the Office of Legislature Research and General Counsel about the issue but they have yet to connect.
“I wanted to know what’s the problem — is there a problem, first of all, and then, what is it. And if there is no legal problem, then why not and what do we need to do to make sure people’s ballots are truly protected,” the Eagle Mountain lawmaker said. “I think that using someone’s private ballot, that again is constitutionally protected, to push a political position is completely inappropriate.”
It’s too soon to say whether that will lead to her proposing changes in the law, she said.
What the Utah County clerk says about the controversy
Davidson did not respond to calls or texts Wednesday asking for comment about the investigation.
During the primary, he and McKell tussled on social media about Utah County not paying for return postage on ballots, a decision made to discourage voters from sending them back via the U.S. Postal Service. Davidson said voting by mail is not as safe or as secure as using a drop box provided by the county.
Before McKell said he’d brought his concerns to the county attorney, Davidson said McKell was the only person whose voting method he publicized even though tracking the method politicians use to vote is “really easy. You just put their name in and it pops up. So I looked at it but I didn’t do anything with it” when it came to others.
“It was just that one time I did it. It was just for the primary because Michael McKell was out there saying all this trash about, ‘Go ahead and cast your ballot using the mail and don’t pay for postage, you don’t have to. He was politicizing that whole thing,” Davidson said.
He said he hasn’t tracked any general election ballots, but that could change “if Mike McKell wants to make a political issue out of it.” Davidson also said the public could access the same information.
The state Elections Office has not commented on the controversy but the state’s director of election, Ryan Cowley, said in a statement the state’s publicly available voter records wouldn’t specify whether or not a ballot was returned through the U.S. Postal Service.
“Counties may use other methods to track where ballots come from, but the state voter registration system only tracks the broad categories which doesn’t differentiate between post office or drop box,” Cowley said.
It’s on nights like these that I’m reminded of the ravine that divides the NBA from all other levels of basketball. This Summer League tilt was sloppy on both sides, and not many fringe players earned an NBA contract tonight, by the looks of it.
This matchup has always been about the number-one pick AJ Dybantsa and the number-two pick Darryn Peterson. Rivals since high school, these two are in an eternal struggle for the designation of being “number-one”. They wanted to be the best in their high school class. They wanted to be the first off the board in the NBA Draft. Rest assured, these two will be battling for Rookie of the Year honors by the season’s end.
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Both stars were fully aware of the magnitude of this game, and both wanted to be the first to strike in the Thomas and Mack Center.
Dybantsa took his first touch all the way to the basket and forced up an off-kilter shot that missed everything.
Peterson took the ball the other way and forced up a top-of-the-key three-pointer that missed badly.
Dybantsa quickly picked up the slack, flipping an under-and-around lay-in and following that up with a good leading bounce pass through traffic to find a cutting teammate.
From there, the 1-2 combo settled in and let the game flow around them.
For the first time in a Utah Jazz uniform, Darryn Peterson walked among mortal men as a commoner. He had a very slow start in his Las Vegas debut, opening the night 0-for-3 from the floor and even whiffing on his first all-or-nothing foul shot. His steps were hurried, and he stood unstable before his first trip to the bench. Not quite so infallible outside of the mountain air in Salt Lake City.
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AJ claimed the first quarter, dicing up the defense with fadeaways, dribble chains, and this vicious, inhumane slam that will dominate your social media feed for the next day or so.
Washington set the tone for some — should we say physical — defense out on the perimeter, and the officials gave the Wizards liberty to reside in Peterson’s chest for the majority of the game. The number-two pick couldn’t get himself into a rhythm as he’d step out of bounds, dribble off his foot, and sputter under the heat of the Wizards’ aggressive double-team scheme.
They were incredibly handsy from end to end, frustrating Jazz ball handlers as the whistles piled up at the other end.
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AJ Dybantsa lives at the foul stripe — that’s his superpower — and he has since his days at BYU, where he led the nation in foul shots taken per game. Perfectly within his idiom, Dybantsa was 6-of-7 from the foul stripe — keeping in mind the experimental do-or-die free throw rule. Considering how much more physical the Wizards played at the defensive end, it’s a mystery how the Wizards managed to reside in the comfort of the bonus for the entire first half.
Neither player was efficient from the floor, but Dybantsa won the first half of this marquee matchup.
Dybantsa finished the first half with 19 points on 4-of-12 shooting.
Peterson lagged behind with 11 points on 3-of-9 shooting and a pair of dimes.
The lead shrank to single digits, and what appeared to be a blowout in the first half — Washington led by as much as 20 — rapidly drew tighter in the second half. It had become a two-possession game before the clock hit 0:00 in the third quarter.
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Both stars lived up to the bill in this one, clearly displaying their individual talents despite their efficiency not leaping off the box score.
Peterson’s tendency to cough up possession has to get straightened out. He’ll be a target for his whole career, so learning to handle and exploit on-ball pressure will be critical to maximize his effectiveness and keep his teammates involved.
Cody Williams stole the show a bit for the Jazz, despite a rocky opening to the night. Though he struggled to stop Dybantsa on the defensive end, he notched 16 points on great efficiency (6-11, 2-3 3PT) plus 5 rebounds. He’s not a ball-handler, despite the Jazz’s wishes, but thrived on a newly added stepback mid-range jumper tonight.
Dybantsa had a strong night, finishing with 27 points on 7-for-18 shooting, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals.
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The Wizards ultimately won this game behind the strength of their NBA guys, Tre Johnson and Will Reily, who combined for 41 to pair with Dybantsa’s 27. They also strongly benefited from Jamir Watkins, Darryn Peterson’s assignment fouling a grand total of 9 times (not a typo).
Peterson likewise fouled 9 times in this one, an ugly blemish on what was an unsteady night for the rookie. He finished with 24 points on 6-18 shooting and 2-7 from three-point land (thanks to a bank-shot heave at the final horn). Dybantsa will be crowned the winner of this head-to-head with Peterson thanks to better highlights and the team win, but neither player dominated, despite what X will likely tell you.
Washington defeats Utah with a final score of 92-88.
Calvin Barrett is the Associate Editor for SLC Dunk. Originally from Springville, Utah, he currently lives in Japan and has covered the NBA and college athletics since 2024.
LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — The man arrested for murder in the 2006 death of his wife at a Utah national park left behind a suicide note in his Las Vegas jail cell, according to a police report.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police released a public report on the death of David Vander Meer, 49, who was in custody on an out-of-state warrant.
The Washington County District Attorney’s Office said in an affidavit that Vander Meer, a former youth pastor, was a suspect in the death of his then-wife, 28-year-old Bernadette Vander Meer, 20 years ago.
Bernadette fell to her death at Angels Landing in Zion National Park. Prosecutors said in their affidavit that they received new information implicating David, alleing that he began having a close relationship with a young girl when she was 14 and he was her youth pastor.
A fugitive task force took Vander Meer into custody in Summerlin, according to an arrest report, and he was booked into Clark County Detention Center on June 22.
In the report on his death, LVMPD said a corrections officer was conducting visual checks at about 9:30 p.m. June 24 when he noticed Vander Meer lying face down on the ground and unresponsive.
Several sections are redacted, but police wrote that the officer performed chest compressions until medical personnel arrived. Vander Meer was taken to UMC, where he was pronounced dead just after 2:36 a.m. June 25.
Investigators wrote that because of “the nature of his case,” Vander Meer was placed into protective custody. He was seen sitting upright and awake at 9 p.m., and he had no known medical conditions. He also did not mention being suicidal during a mental health screening.
Inside the cell, police wrote that Vander Meer “left a hand written suicide letter and a hand written will in his cell which has been photographed and impounded.” The following paragraph of the report was redacted, and no further details on Vander Meer’s death were disclosed.
The Clark County Coroner’s Office has not yet released its official rulings on his cause and manner of death.
Bernadette’s parents, Richard and Laura Gudenkauf, told News 3 they long suspected Vander Meer played a role in her death.
“Because of the girlfriend,” said Laura. “I found insurance policies months later that he had, lots of them.”
It has been a long time since the Jazz last played a meaningful game I desperately wanted them to win, and it is unhealthy how excited I am for this matchup. After a solid three games in the SLC Summer League, the Jazz head south to Las Vegas, and as hot as the desert sun is sure to be outside, on the court, the Thursday night primetime game featuring the top two picks in the draft will be much hotter.
How to Watch the Las Vegas Summer League?
Who: Utah Jazz vs Washington Wizards
When: Thursday, July 9, 2026 | 7:00 MT
Where: Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, NV
How to watch: ESPN, Jazz+
Darryn Peterson and AJ Dybantsa
Summer league games do not matter in the record books, but this game is a statement-making opportunity for both AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson. Given the historical nature of this draft class, especially at the top, there is some real juice to this game that is atypical of most Summer League games. AJ has the chance to silence the noise that has swelled after Darryn’s remarkable performances in the SLC Summer League. Meanwhile, Darryn has the chance to ratchet up the noise and take the NBA world by storm with another solid performance against the Wizards. Can you imagine the narratives if Darryn were to come out and dominate AJ as he has through high school and college? In the words of the great Charles Barkley, I have two words for you… Darryn Peterson, AJ Dybantsa, must-see TV.
Ace Bailey looked really impressive in his 2.5 quarters of play in Salt Lake before missing games with back spasms. It is unknown whether or not he will be ready to go for the Vegas opener, but if he is available, he will probably be the one checking AJ Dybantsa on defense. His combination of length and athleticism could not only make things difficult for AJ on the defensive end but also expose his lackadaisical defense on the offensive end. If Ace is able to go, he will be looking to show the Jazz and the NBA that he is ready to take a leap in year two.
Which Jazz Big Man Will Stand Out?
Which big man will step up this game? In Game 1, we saw a lot of Kylor Kelley, who was a little less than impressive. Against Memphis, Jaxon Kohler, the Utah native, showed up and showed out against Cam Boozer. In game three, although the number of NBA-level players was few and far between, Jonas Aidoo stole the show with his rebounding and ability to play his role. Will we see one of those same three guys seize their opportunity, or will another guy like Micah Handlogten or Eric Dixon steal the show? We saw how vital a big that can roll and catch passes is for Darryn Peterson as a lead guard, playmaking-wise. It will be interesting to see who steps up to the plate to relieve pressure when he is blitzed and double-teamed.
SIDE NOTE: Adam Silver is LAME
No one should ASPIRE to be as boring as Adam Silver. After much excitement was made about Keyonte George making his unofficial coaching debut on Thursday night, according to Sarah Todd, the league has nixed that excitement and won’t allow Keyonte to be coaching on the sideline because who knows why…? I guess they were worried about the Jazz circumventing the salary cap to pay Keyonte or something. Anyways, I guess Will Hardy’s coaching TREE will have to wait for more branches to grow. Adam Silver remains evil in my book.
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