At a year-end meeting this month, Utah Foundation’s board members ranked our findings for 2017. Two of the top-ranked findings pertained to voter turnout. The issue of voter turnout came up a few days later over lunch with a friend who wanted to explore ways to boost the numbers in Utah. Meanwhile, statewide, two separate groups have been gathering signatures for ballot initiatives to rethink the way we elect our candidates, both with an eye to boosting turnout.
It’s certainly a good sign that Utahns care about voter turnout. But there are no easy answers.
In a recent report on elections, Utah Foundation found that our state’s voter participation was 39th in the nation in the 2016 presidential election. It also found that uncompetitive general-election races are the norm. In 2016, 71 percent of Utah’s state races were won by a margin of greater than 30 percent.
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