Utah audit finds errors in signature verification for Cox, Curtis and Brown

A performance audit of the state’s signature verification process recommended multiple improvements to the Lieutenant Governor’s office after finding that Utah Gov. Spencer Cox may not have initially met the threshold of valid signatures to qualify for the primary election ballot.
The audit also reviewed signatures gathered for Republican candidates Rep. John Curtis in his U.S. Senate race, and attorney general candidate Derek Brown. Errors were found for all three candidates — with some rejected signatures that should have been cleared, while some rejected signatures should have made the cut, the audit found.
Cox and Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson gathered signatures together, but the Lieutenant Governor’s office, which oversees elections in the state, contracts with the Davis County clerk’s office to verify signature packets for statewide primary races.
Cox and Henderson were determined to have collected enough signatures to qualify for the primary election ballot before April’s Republican convention, and Cox’s primary election win over Rep. Phil Lyman was certified in July.
In response to the audit report, Cox and Henderson released a statement, saying they “respect the efforts of legislative auditors and their recognition that the Cox campaign fully complied with the law.”
“After a full verification of every signature by the independently elected Davis County Clerk and two separate audits of a sampling of signatures by the Utah State Auditor and the Office of the Legislative Auditor General, we are supportive of the collective recommendations for process improvement,” the statement said. “We are especially supportive of the proposed change that would allow candidates to continue submitting signatures even after they reach the prescribed threshold, a process currently not allowed in Utah election law.”
The statement said the campaign had additional signatures to submit, but they were not allowed to turn those signatures in once they had qualified for the ballot.
“As the incumbent Governor and Republican nominee, the Governor’s focus continues to be making a case for policies that will keep Utah’s future bright to earn the support of voters throughout the state,” the statement concluded.
The audit was conducted by the state’s office of legislative auditors, staffed by independent auditors appointed by the bicameral Legislative Audit Subcommittee, in response to a request made by the Republican candidates in Utah’s three biggest statewide races.
In an effort to increase voter confidence, Cox and Henderson; Brown, and Curtis released a statement in August asking for a legislative audit of the signature-gathering process.
The leaders of Utah’s two legislative chambers, Senate Pres. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, issued a statement clarifying that the results of the audit report does not impact the upcoming general election. The lawmakers, who chair the legislative audit subcommittee, framed the audit report as a “positive way to maintain a robust and trustworthy electoral system that effectively serves the public.”
Although the audit identified some errors in the signature verification process, these would not have affected the primary election’s outcome,” the statement said. “Each candidate submitted more signatures than required by law and would have had sufficient time to gather additional signatures if needed.”
The report points out that Cox would have had plenty of time to collect additional signatures if the Davis County clerk’s office had notified him of the signature shortfall because he submitted his first batch of 28,000 signatures 28 days before the deadline. Cox was unable to cover this deficit in valid signatures because the Davis County clerk’s office did not know about, or notify Cox of, the error rate.
How were signature packets audited? Utah candidates must qualify for a primary election by receiving at least 40% of state delegates’ support in a party convention, or by submitting 28,000 valid signatures to the Lieutenant Governor’s office two weeks before the qualified political party’s convention.
Cox submitted his signature packets 28 days before the deadline. The total number of signatures Cox initially submitted was 28,492. Those signatures were reviewed by the Davis County clerk’s office, then Cox and Henderson were approved to appear on the Republican primary ballot.
The recent audit tested a sample of 1,000 signatures submitted and reviewed every nomination petition packet to check for errors that could affect the entire packet.
The survey showed a 2.4% error rate of signatures that were validated among signatures gathered by Cox, and a 1.9% error rate for incorrectly invalidated signatures. If the error rate were to be applied to Cox’s signature packets as a whole, the auditors determined that 665 of Cox’s signatures — with potentially as few as 408 or as many as 1,021 — were incorrectly validated.
If subtracted from the estimated number of signatures that were incorrectly thrown out — likely around 93, but potentially as few as 19 or as much as 266 — the number of illegitimate signatures that were counted toward Cox’s primary qualification totals 572 signatures.
This means, according to the auditors’ report, that even if each of Cox’s extra 492 signatures was valid, the incumbent governor likely would have fallen short of the valid signature requirement with his initial submission of signature packets.
The signature packets of Curtis and Brown had a slightly lower rate of incorrectly validated signatures, both around 1.5%. When it came to incorrectly invalidated signatures, Curtis had an error rate of .9% and Brown had an error rate of 6.4%, likely affecting around 240 ballots.
These respective error rates likely produced a net total of 400 incorrectly counted signatures for Curtis and 140 for Brown. However, both candidates gathered significantly more additional signatures than Cox. Curtis submitted 2,600 extra signatures six days before the deadline. And Brown submitted 1,800 extra signatures with 10 days left.
The results of the audit report were presented to the state legislative audit subcommittee by audit manager Jesse Martinson and lead auditor Andrew Poulter on Tuesday.
The auditors said Cox, Curtis and Brown did everything they were supposed to in order to qualify for the primary ballot. Once the Davis County Clerk’s Office had verified 28,000 signatures, they instructed the candidates not to submit any additional signatures.
“As far as we could tell, the candidates met all the rules. They gathered all the signatures,” Poulter said. “There’s nothing more they could have done. They did everything they were asked to do. This is more looking at the process and Davis County and how they facilitate that process and signature verification.”
Auditors said the signature error rate from Davis County’s verification process is the result of human error, including misjudging signature matches and failing to find names on voter rolls.
Auditors recommended that the Legislature and the Lieutenant Governor’s Office should take steps to add safeguards to account for these errors. Recommendations include:
This story has been updated.