A law passed this year requires all unattended ballot drop boxes to have cameras to ease voter fraud concerns. However, there could be unintended consequences.
Rep. Phil Lyman cited concerns with election security, but election officials said there are "no gaping holes" with Utah’s vote-by-mail system. HB371 would have made in-person voting the default in Utah, and voters would need to manually request absentee ballots. Election officials and others argued that it would disenfranchise rural voters, elderly voters and voters with disabilities.
A bill that would have returned Utah to in-person voting by default failed to advance from committee on Wednesday after opponents argued that it could disenfranchise voters and had few discernible security benefits.
Lawmakers have proposed a variety of changes to improve elections in Utah, two of which have received broad support \u2014 including from the state s highest election official.
Two election security bills in the Utah Legislature propose making Utah elections more secure. Election security changes would include allowing poll watchers to stand within six feet to observe vote counting, and requiring voters to provide a copy of their ID if they didn’t provide it when registering to vote.