Council Meetings - Special Meeting

Good afternoon. Today is Tuesday, November 18th, 2025. We are at Washington City Hall in the city council chambers for a special meeting for the purpose of canvasing the November 4th, 2025 election. I'll call for a motion to approve the agenda. So made, mayor. Second. I have a motion by Councilman Ivy, a second by Councilman Coats. All in favor? I.

The agenda is approved. We will move right into the first and only item of business, which is consideration to approve the canvasing of the November 4, 2025 municipal general election. I'll invite the city recorder, Tara Pence, to report the results to the council.

Good afternoon, mayor and council. Um, I did get you each a copy of our results that we received from the county today. That's the final um, statistics report. We had a 31.3% turnout. It's a little bit less than the last two elections, but I I think it's just because of our limited number of people on the ballot. So, I I was expecting lower. So, I think this was a pretty good turnout. We currently have 19,936 active voters and we received a total of 624 well 6,240 ballots were counted. Um and then there were a few that were not they were not able to cure by the end of the election. So if you want to I don't know how much detail you want me to go into this but um obviously the mayor was voted in with 5,619 votes. Council member Caspersonson received 4,280 votes total. Um, and Council Member Brett Henderson received 4,19.

Oh boy, you better be ready. that do you want me to tell you? Ed, our third our third candidate for council was Ed Tracy with a total of 2447 votes. Sorry, I just was trying to hit the highlights. Um, we did have 13 people attend early voting. Almost worth the time that it took to set everything up. Um, there was 65 people from Washington City that voted in person on the day of the election. So most are still ballots. Yeah, almost 65. Yeah, me too.

I'm telling you, it's the wave. Yeah, we voting on our phones. Jared, do we have any overseas voters like military service? Do they still come in? We did. We had seven Yukava voters. They're the out ofstate or military. We had seven. Seven. Mhm. Okay. And those all came back in and those were all counted. Do we have any idea how many were mailed in versus dropped in the drop boxes? Yeah, I mean I the county when they collect them they we do separate them by each dropbox and by the post office and those are all noted in the system. Okay. But they don't provide that separate count for us.

But the the big change this time around is your ballot needs to be in possession of the county. Yeah. On election by election day. Yes. Tara, does it seem like that there was some confusion in a previous election about mailing the ballot and it's got to go to Vegas or Provo and back and they they did a better job of saying have it mailed by this date this time. So, from my understanding, they the post office held them all. They did not go to Vegas this year. They came in and they kept them on site. But the county did do a better job of saying don't, you know, just to allow for this lag in in processing. So, mail them by this date. Yeah. I like that.

And most of I mean, we did get a lot of ballots through the mail, but our dropboxes were packed every time they picked them up. So, I would say that 2 to one is drop boxes at least. That's good. Do you know the percentages for the voter turnout from previous years? how it compares to do you have those numbers?

Yep. So 2021 we actually had a 41 point it was 41.86% turnout. At that time we only had 16,575 registered voters. That one was a little bit I mean I feel like when we have more people on the ballot we obviously get a little bit better turnout. Um that one was probably our highest. Um two years ago we only had 39.6. So, we aren't lagging too far behind this year still. When we used to do um uh all inerson voting, we got around 11% voter turnout. So, we're I mean I think the highest we got when we had all inerson was I want to say we got 17 one year, but it wasn't quite 17

for municipal. That's why I think it's important to keep mail ballots because it keeps people who feel like it's worth their time to sit down and do like I like it. I can sit down, research who I want, make the decision. I mean, I wasn't sure if I wanted Brett this year. It was tough. So, come on. Too soon. Too soon, you know. I mean, no, but those those things you got to think. So, I think mail and bound is important. I don't like the idea that's coming out that you should do full in person because I think you'll lose people's votes just because the availability and everyone's busy with life.

So, if they go back to that, we will definitely drop at least I bet you it drops 50% from what we have now. Even though the polls are open till 8. I used to work those and people get off if they get off work at 5 or 6. No one wants to go wait in line for 2 hours and we have to shut it at 8. So, if you're waiting in line and it hits 8, you don't get to vote. So, it definitely takes some pressure off that way. Did we find the results were quicker this way? Um I Well, it's a lot easier to process because we can do it. We were overwork for 3 weeks. So, as soon as the ballots came out, we started processing. We were majority counted by the end of the fourth. Yeah.

I was at an event yesterday with the county clerk auditor and he had some interesting comments. He said it's really was a really smooth this this election. He said that everyone kind of has now got that equipment and and kind of the the details worked out. And so he was I told him I said, "Look at the smile that you have on your face. I think your election is over." And he goes, "Yeah." And I smiled most of the election season as well. So yeah, it was really great this time. I mean, it's been it's busy and it's a lot, but it runs really smooth compared when we first got the equipment. It was a little bit a little bit of a struggle, but it's pretty smooth now. Very good.

Well, council, is there any further discussion on this? Uh, any uh comments? Uh, Councilman Caspersonson with the feeling a little a little the weight's feeling a little bit to the to this side now. I mean, talking about we got three people over here. We're fine. What's your point? Got zero votes. That's my point. Councilwoman Caspersonson, Councilman Henderson, anything you'd like to say before we make this uh vote official?

Well, I I'm just happy to be able to serve again. So, it was humbling to be able to, you know, run again and and get some more votes and glad to serve. It's really a honor to serve and be trusted for another four years. So, thank you. Well said. Well said. Amen. Grateful to be able to serve with with all of you too, everyone here that makes Washington City so wonderful. Yeah. Thank you.

Well said, council. At this time, I'll entertain a motion to approve the canvasing of the November 4th, 2025 municipal general election. Have a motion by Councilman Coats, a second a second by Councilman Belliston. All in favor? I. Any opposed? The canvasing is approved five to zero. I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion by Councilman Belliston. Second. Second by Councilman Coats. All in favor? We are adjourned.