Some Davis voters confused

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Voting in the Western Presidential Primary went smoothly in Weber County, but for some Davis County voters, Super Tuesday turned out to be a super hassle.

A new electronic check-in system, combined with new locations for polling stations, caused confusion and delay. Alan Curtis, of Layton, said the line to vote tripled in the 30 minutes it took him to vote at the LDS Holmes Creek Stake Center.

"When we got there, the line was about 20 people, and when we left, it had grown to about 60 or 70," Curtis said. "There were empty voting booths as people sat there waiting in line. It took too long to process everybody's information on the computers."

Davis County Elections Director Pat Beckstead said there had been a few minor problems with the new electronic check-in system, but most voters were moving quickly through county polling stations despite the large turnout.

"The electronic check-in is still the fastest way to do it," she said. "One reason people may have been seeing empty voting booths as they wait in line is this ballot is so short. People are finished voting a lot faster than normal -- they're casting their votes in the same amount of time it takes them to check in."

Beckstead said the 30-minute wait Curtis encountered in Layton wasn't typical.

"I just talked with Syracuse, and it's taking their voters about seven minutes -- in Bountiful it's about five," she said. "With a lot of turnout, naturally there are going to be some delays, but overall, things have been moving pretty steadily."

Weber County Election Clerk Gloria Barrett said compared to the confusion of the 2007 general election, operations were going smoothly in the primary.

"It's all going very well. We're not doing anything different than last time," she said, adding that this election was different because of what wasn't there.

There are no candidates or their volunteers hovering around the polling places, she said, and there have been no challenges to voters.

November's election in Weber County was marked by hundreds of challenges to voters by campaign volunteers who supported Ogden Mayor Matthew Godfrey.

Hundreds of other voters had to fill out provisional ballots, some because of the challenges and some because of problems with their election records.

Weber residents filled out 1,735 provisional ballots in that election. Because of problems with the way those ballots were handled, officials disqualified 516. A lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union found many of those ballots were disqualified because the provisional ballot form was filled out improperly.

Barrett said Tuesday she had done more training for poll workers on how to fill out provisional ballots, which are used when people say they are registered to vote in Utah, but are not registered at their current address.

"We've instructed the poll workers that do the provisional ballots to keep handing them back until everything is filled out," she said. "And make sure everything matches."

At Grandview Elementary's polling place, Traci and Justin Frahm, who live in the East Ridge Apartments on 42nd Street in Ogden, had to fill out provisional ballots.

They moved there a year ago, he said, and registered to vote when they moved in, so he was surprised he couldn't vote normally.

"We registered and got the card, so it's kind of frustrating," said Justin Frahm. "They took our name off of where we were, but didn't put it where we are."

He didn't mind filling out a provisional ballot, "as long as it counts," he said. "I want it to count."

Barrett said at 3 p.m. polling places were reporting "business has been steady, at least they aren't crying like they were in November." The highly controversial race for Ogden mayor, plus all the challenges, overwhelmed some polling places.

Grandview Elementary's polling place reported steady business all day. As of noon, poll worker Ila Jean Carter said there had been 163 voters, plus half a dozen provisional ballots.

"The minute we opened the door we had people coming in," she said.

Some voters were confused by the movement of polling places between elections. Linnea Pearson, of Clearfield, said her son Ethan Pearson went to his usual polling station at Antelope Elementary only to realize he was at the wrong building.

"My son went to the place where we normally vote and nobody was there," she said. "We had no idea our station had been changed or where to go. You'd think they could at least put some kind of sign up to let people know where to go."

Beckstead said consolidating numerous polling stations into one larger station is a national trend that helps keep costs down.

She also said voters received plenty of notification concerning poll location changes.

"We published it in all the newspapers, we had it on our Web site and sent a card to every household with a registered voter," Beckstead said. "Somebody said, 'Well I just threw it away because I thought it was junk mail.' All we can do is send it to you, we can't make you read it."

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