Overall, things ran smoothly in the municipal elections held Tuesday, according to state election officials. But, some preliminary results show leadership changes in some cities, affecting how the state Legislature will look.
Cottonwood Heights Democratic Rep. Gay Lynn Bennion, who has represented District 41 for five years, is poised to become Cottonwood Heights’ new mayor, leading the race with 56% of votes, according to unofficial results on Wednesday. Current Mayor Mike Weichers is 13 percentage points behind.
The results are so far looking “pretty solid,” Bennion said on Wednesday.
Bennion, still a house representative, will wait until election results are certified in about two weeks to resign from the Legislature. Then, District 41 Democratic delegates will choose a replacement to fill Bennion’s seat for the remaining year of her term.
“I just want (constituents) to know what an honor it has been to serve them in House District 41,” Bennion said, “Our House district has voted for Democratic women for the past 24 years, and I see excellent people that could take my spot, that our delegates will be able to choose from.”
Bennion highlighted her fight for housing affordability and water conservation issues at the state level. While her time in the Utah House “has been a joy,” she said she saw a need for a change of leadership in the mayor’s office. In particular, the city needs to improve its support to the Unified Fire Authority, which serves the city, and increase oversight of short-term rentals, she said.
“We have 500 plus unlicensed short-term rentals in our city because we’re right between the canyons,” Bennion said. “This is an issue that I’ve worked with our citizens for four years, and I tried to pass good statute from the state, but we can do that for our city and get this under control in a good way.”
However, she is sad to see voter turnout rates, she said, with thousands of people failing to cast a ballot in her district.
That was a pattern in counties across the state. Ryan Cowley, director of elections with the lieutenant governor’s office, estimates that turnout will be somewhere in the 30% range for most cities, with municipalities that had mayoral races faring a little better.
That’s substantially lower than the 86% statewide turnout Utah saw during last year’s general elections.
For municipal elections, falling in the 30% range is expected, though “it’s really hard to compare municipal elections one year to the next, especially two-year cycles,” he said, since races are different for each city.
Election Day didn’t have any major highlights or problems, just “a few small things that come up,” Cowley said. Overall, it was a “pretty smooth and well-run election,” but voter turnout could still improve.
“(There were) a lot of close races. So when people say that their vote doesn’t matter, it really does,” Cowley said. “And to those who came out and turned out and voted, they got to express that choice. And to those that didn’t, their vote definitely would make a difference.”
Besides from Bennion’s likely win, it doesn’t seem like there will be much change at the Legislature as a result of this election.
Riverton Republican Sen. Daniel McCay had vowed to not run for reelection if his wife Tawnee McCay prevailed in the race for Riverton mayor. But, according to preliminary results Wednesday afternoon, Tawnee McCay, a Riverton City Council Member, only secured about 31% of votes, a wide gap from fellow Council Member Tish Buroker, who is ahead with 69% of votes.
In Provo, the race between incumbent Mayor Michelle Kaufusi and Marsha Judkins, who left the Utah House last year, remained tight as of Wednesday afternoon. According to unofficial results, Kaufusi is leading with 50.6% of votes, a 162-ballot advantage over Judkins who had 49.3% of votes.
This article was originally published by Utah News Dispatch.
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About the Author
Alixel Cabrera covers the status of diverse Utah communities, growth, infrastructure and education for Utah News Dispatch.
