SALT LAKE CITY–When the Utah Republican Party in August 2023 opted to conduct a party-orchestrated caucus rather than a state-run primary for its March 5 presidential preference poll, it did so because the more intimate neighborhood election process would save taxpayer money and promote “community engagement.”
By any post-caucus March 6 assessment, they certainly exceeded expectations in inducing that “community engagement.”
GOP voters in many of the 300-plus caucus sites across the state had to wait for up to 90 minutes to have their party status verified in what turned out to be a laborious process plagued by technical glitches and gaffes.
In the end—or at least when it became apparent that former President Donald Trump had an insurmountable lead and that the race could be called at about 3:40 a.m.—Utah Republican Party officials said the delays didn’t affect the results and that the difficulties would be remedied to ensure that such problems don’t happen again.
“Certainly, there’s different lessons that will be learned on what worked and what didn’t work,” Utah Republican Party Chair Robert Axson told the few journalists who lingered into early hours on March 6 at the Utah Trucking Association’s administrative offices in West Valley City, a few miles south of Salt Lake City.
“I think there are some things that are very clear, that we’re very pleased with, and other places where it’s like, ‘Oh, you know, things could be a little bit better.’ And we have to learn from that. We’re always happy to make sure we’re improving in our process.”
Utah’s presidential preference caucus results were the last to be reported and last to be called among the 15 GOP Super Tuesday preliminaries. A few hours after the race was called, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley dropped out of the race, clinching the Republican nomination for President Trump.
Glitches and Gremlins
An array of gremlins hampered the caucuses. For instance, party organizers and voters turned up at some sites only to learn that there were no or slow internet connections, making online registration a tweaky, time-consuming affair.Voters who had registered online weeks ago arrived at sites complaining that they never received an email with a QR code to enable check-in. Others said they had been inadvertently registered into the wrong or new precincts that they had no knowledge of until arriving at caucus sites.
Many arrived when sites opened at 6 p.m. to verify their status for the 7 p.m. caucuses, spurring a concentrated simultaneous surge that sporadically froze the state GOP’s online “credentialing” system. As was later reported, the registration webpage had been locking up throughout the day, even before it had to handle the sudden volume.
There were many other challenges across numerous sites, including a scarcity of those with technical expertise to assist, aggravated by volunteers who failed to show up in several large counties, according to Mr. Axson.
Going with a caucus for the presidential preference poll rather than a primary made sense, he said. The state GOP routinely caucuses for midterm elections and did so for the 2016 presidential poll.
“The things that were important to me were transparency, accuracy,” Mr. Axson said. “Those are things that I’m very confident with what we did.”
Not all agree, especially since some sites eventually allowed voters to register and caucus simply by presenting driver’s licenses.
The comments—a loud “no” consensus—speak for themselves, including Salt Lake County Auditor Chris Harding chiming in, calling the party’s August 2023 decision “not the best of ideas.”
“At our caucus [they] ran out of ballots and just told people to write down who their preference was,” he wrote in response to Mr. McKell’s query.
“People were coming and going, and by the time they actually counted the ballots and gave the results, there were like 10 more votes than people in the room. Not secure! I wouldn’t do it again.”
The caucuses were to begin at 7 p.m., but in many places, such as at Hunter High School in West Valley City—where 22 precincts caucused in 16 sites, ranging from classrooms to a performing arts auditorium—people were still backed up into hallways a half-hour into the process.
The presidential preference poll was to remain open until 8 p.m., but in many cases, voters had until 9 p.m. to cast their ballots. Most precincts at Hunter High School had concluded business by 8:45 p.m.
Republican state Rep. Matt MacPherson told The Epoch Times that caucus chairs agreed to begin the process even though “by 8 o’clock, there were still people waiting in line to be credentialed.”
The party was supposed to be posting results by no later than 9 p.m., with the whole shebang expected to be over by 11 p.m. However, by 9 p.m., only 1 percent of the tally had been reported, and as midnight neared, with 66 percent of the state’s 2,500 precincts reporting, about 55,000 votes had been tabulated.
By 1:30 a.m., 74 percent of precincts had reported, with President Trump securing 58.2 percent of the tally, amounting to 37,960 votes, compared with Ms. Haley’s 40.7 percent, or 26,539 votes.
The only person remaining in the media room after 2 a.m. was an Associated Press correspondent. The race wasn’t called until 3:40 a.m., when 78.8 percent of precinct results had been reported and tabulated.
Utah GOP: A ‘Successful’ Caucus
A statement from the Utah Republican Party early on March 6 confirmed that President Trump had won but curiously called the night “successful.”“I want to thank all the candidates who participated, our dedicated organizers and volunteers, and especially the caucus-goers, even when dealing with long lines and some hiccups to the check-in process in some locations,” Mr. Axson said in a statement. “Republicans from all around the state from every background came together for meaningful participation in our democratic system.”
The Utah GOP had projected that about 100,000 Republicans would caucus. It appears the actual turnout will fall at least 15,000 short of that. It is uncertain how many voters went home rather than wait out the glitch-fostered delays, although at Hunter High School, there were relatively few who did so.
The still-preliminary results indicate that President Trump won 27 of the state’s 29 counties. The two counties Ms. Haley won are among the three most populous in the state.
With 242 of Utah County’s 361 precincts’ results reported as of 1 p.m. MST on March 6, President Trump, with 7,700 votes, was leading Ms. Haley, who had tallied 6,513.
Ms. Haley was leading in Salt Lake County with 585 of 629 precincts reporting that she had earned 9,421 votes to President Trump’s 8,523, and in Davis County, with 346 of 377 precinct results logged, Ms. Haley was ahead of President Trump, 6,336–6,026.
The former South Carolina governor—and now former presidential candidate—won the absentee vote, mostly Utahns serving in the military, 269–76.
Mr. Axson assured Republicans that the technical issues, manpower shortages, and other matters would all be resolved. While frustrating, the issues didn’t affect the result: President Trump clearly won, earning all the state’s 40 delegates, and now it’s time to focus on November.
“The continued engagement of all of us is going to be critical this campaign season,” he said. “Clearly, America is on the wrong path under Joe Biden, and we need strong Republican leadership in Washington to promote common-sense policies that make our communities safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”
