AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Utah on Election Day

By RICHARD LARDNER The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Utah voters will cast ballots for the full range of federal and state offices in the Nov. 5 general election, including president, Congress, governor, state Legislature and others.

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican former President Donald Trump and half a dozen third-party candidates are competing for Utah’s six electoral votes to replace outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden. It has been 60 years since a Democratic presidential candidate has won Utah.

GOP Congressman John Curtis, Democrat Caroline Gleich and independent candidate Carlton Bowen are squaring off to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, who announced last year he would not seek a second term.

Republican Gov. Spencer Cox is running for reelection against Democratic state Rep. Brian King and three other candidates on the ballot. Cox received 64% of the vote in 2020.

Utah’s four congressional seats, all held by Republicans, are up for election, including the 3rd District seat Curtis is vacating to run for the Senate.

Two constitutional amendments are on the ballot but votes for or against them won’t count after state courts voided the measures. Both amendments, however, remain on the ballot to keep printing and other election deadlines on track. One amendment would have allowed state lawmakers to rewrite citizen-approved initiatives and the other asked voters to consider changing how state income tax revenue is spent.

Polls close in Utah at 10 p.m. ET. Utah’s elections are conducted predominantly by mail, and all registered voters are sent absentee ballots, which can returned to a drop box or by mail. Mailed votes must be postmarked by Nov. 4, the day before Election Day. Utah tallies advance ballots prior to Election Day.

Utah counted a third of its votes after Election Day in 2022 and those additional ballots favored Democrats by 4 percentage points. That’s a substantial change from recent prior elections when the shift expanded the margin of victory for Republicans by one half to almost a full percentage point. The main counties to watch for additional votes have been Davis, Salt Lake and Utah.

Utah’s mandatory recount provision is triggered when the difference in votes for each candidate is equal to or less than 0.25% of the total number of votes cast.

Utah has been solidly Republican. Lyndon Johnson was the last Democratic presidential candidate to win there, carrying the state in 1964.

Still, Utah bears watching. As the state’s Mormon population has dropped, Utah has become more diverse. And some of the state’s Mormon voters have half-heartedly embraced Trump. Although Trump won Utah by 18 and 20 percentage point margins in 2016 and 2020, he far underperformed previous GOP nominees, who carried the state by nearly 30- to almost 50-point margins from 2000 through 2012.

The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it has determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

Here’s a look at what to expect in the 2024 election in Utah:

Election Day

Nov. 5.

Poll closing time

10 p.m. ET.

Presidential electoral votes

6 awarded to statewide winner.

Key races and candidates

President: Harris (D) vs. Trump (R) vs. Jill Stein (Green) vs. Chase Oliver (Libertarian) vs. Cornel West (unaffiliated) and three others.

U.S. Senate: Curtis (R) vs. Gleich (D) and one other.

Governor: Cox (R) vs. Smith King (D) and three others.

Other races of interest

U.S. House, state Senate, state House, attorney general, auditor, state Board of Education, treasurer and ballot measures.

Past presidential results

2020: Trump (R) 58%, Biden (D) 38%, AP race call: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, 11:07 p.m. ET.

Voter registration and turnout

Registered voters: 2,025,754 (as of Oct. 21, 2024). About 14% Democrats, 50% Republicans and 29% unaffiliated.

Voter turnout in 2020 presidential election: 80% of registered voters.

Pre-Election Day voting

Votes cast before Election Day 2020 and 2022: almost all votes cast by mail.

Votes cast before Election Day 2024: See AP Advance Vote tracker.

How long does vote-counting take?

First votes reported, Nov. 3, 2020: 10:01 p.m. ET.

By midnight ET: about 63% of total votes cast were reported.

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Associated Press writer Maya Sweedler contributed to this report.

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Read more about how U.S. elections work at Explaining Election 2024, a series from The Associated Press aimed at helping make sense of the American democracy. The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.