Voters' residency challenged during election
There are no comments for this page [ Add Comment ]Wednesday, November 7, 2007
By Charles Trentelman
Standard-Examiner staff
OGDEN -- Dozens of people trying to vote Tuesday in Ogden discovered they had been challenged and had to prove where they lived before they were allowed to vote.
The voters were on a list submitted to the Weber County clerk's office by Blake Fowers, an Ogden resident and supporter of Mayor Matthew Godfrey.
All people on the list had moved in recent years, and election law allows their right to vote to be challenged if the address they now live at is not the one where they are registered.
All people who were challenged had to verify their address, showing two forms of ID with their current address.
In a brief telephone conversation Tuesday morning, Fowers confirmed he had filed the list, but then said he was busy and would call back later. Multiple attempts to reach him later Tuesday by telephone were not successful.
Godfrey said Tuesday afternoon that he knew of no mass list of challenges being submitted by his supporters.
"I know about a handful, people that came in," he said. "We wanted to challenge those we were aware of that don't live in the city, because that's not honest."
Godfrey's opponent, Susan Van Hooser, said she did not submit any lists of voters to be challenged, although she knew she could have.
She said she had been getting many calls about the challenges. "There are a lot of people that are upset. They feel it is a very underhanded tactic," she said.
She said the challenge seemed to be an attempt to intimidate voters or throw up a bureaucratic hurdle.
"I knew I could, but at one point I think all citizens deserve to vote, and there are people who went to vote and were denied," she said.
"I think it was kind of underhanded. It makes me wonder how afraid he is."
The list shows approximately 150 people, most with addresses in the southeast bench area of Ogden. Many were people who moved out of Ogden, but many others moved from one Ogden address to another.
Lisa Arrington, an elections clerk with the Weber County Clerk's Office, said the list was presented last week.
"They had challenged voters because they are not registered where they are currently living," she said.
"So by law we need to put in the official register that they have to be challenged, and if they are challenged, all they have to do is prove where they live to cast a ballot."
Under state law, she said, anyone registered in Utah can vote in the local election where they reside.
They must prove their residency and the election office of the county clerk must verify that they are registered.
Proof of residency typically includes a driver's license and a utility bill showing current address. Challenged voters can cast a provisional ballot, on paper, which is verified later and then counted.
Several voters challenged Tuesday were baffled or angered, saying they had been allowed to vote in the same polling place in previous elections without challenge.
Zach Willaims said he and his wife were challenged when they tried to vote at Polk Elementary School.
"We just moved into my mother-in-law's home," he said, but the move was only three weeks ago and they did not change voting districts.
He said he noticed that poll watchers had lists of people to be challenged.
He filed a request at the Weber County Clerk's Office and obtained the whole list.
"It just looks like there's been a concerted effort to challenge voters," he said.
Dorothy Littrell, a vocal opponent of Godfrey, was also challenged when she went to vote at Grandview Elementary School.
"I've been voting for more than 60 years and never had an experience like I had today," Littrell said Tuesday night. "It's the biggest mess I've ever experienced."
Littrell said she was finally able to cast a provisional ballot but it took her three tries. She said she has lived in Ogden for "quite a few years," voted at Grandview before and maintains a business address in North Ogden.
City Council Chairman Jesse Garcia is also included on the list. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday night.
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