LOGAN — It’s official Cache County has a new county executive, Nibley city manager David Zook. He was elected by special election held Saturday night and organized by the Cache Republican party. On KVNU’s For the People program on Monday, party chairman Chris Booth said turn-out was heavy.
“So, eighty percent of the eligible voters, there were 521 eligible voters for Saturday’s election, between the county delegates and the county central committee members. Of those, like 414 showed up in person, so right around eighty percent showed up in person to cast their vote,” he said.
Booth said a lot of the credit goes out to all four candidates for the position because they were calling, texting and emailing all the delegates up to the election. He said in voting, they used a hybrid electronic system that was secure.
“At a state central committee meeting a few weeks prior, and it was through email, and it was a pretty secure, pretty slick service. It was Secure Internet Voting, Inc, and so I said….I talked to the guy who was administering it there, who was Josh Daniels from Utah County. He works in the Utah County clerks office, and I said ‘Hey could we do this at our….I’ve got a special election we’ve got to run here in a few weeks. Could we use this service?’”
He said they were trying to address concerns over the pandemic and not have people line up at the ballot box, but also use the technology to make it as convenient as possible for the delegates, while, because of the by-laws, still holding the election in person.