After recent audits revealed a 2% error rate in signature verification on ballots, and found many deceased and duplicate voters in the elections system, including a few who wrongfully voted, Utah lawmakers met for a hearing this week to discuss the findings. 

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House Speaker Mike Schultz, a Republican, told colleagues he believed the audits showed “concerning” signs that mail-in voting isn’t as secure as traditional in-person voting. 

“I think the question comes, is vote by mail really as secure as in-person voting?” Schultz said during a hearing of the Legislative Audit Subcommittee. “And based off the audits we have in front of us, it’s clearly not the case. And that’s concerning to me moving forward.”

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House Minority Leader Angela Romero, a Democrat, disagreed, saying that moving away from voting by mail would discourage people from participating in elections. 

“I have concerns that people are going to use this audit to try to eliminate vote by mail,” she added. “I want to make sure we are encouraging people to vote and not discouraging people to vote. And I can tell you the way this conversation is going, I worry that we’re going to put barriers there so people can’t vote.”

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Mail-in ballots have enjoyed a massive increase in popularity in recent years. More than 402,000 mail-in ballots were requested in Utah during the 2024 election cycle, up from 187,674 absentee ballots cast in the state in 2012, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Utah’s latest elections audits found that some 1,400 Utahns who were “likely deceased” remained on the state’s voter rolls after their deaths. Half of the voters in question received ballots in one of the three elections reviewed.

Two of the “likely deceased” voters cast a ballot in the 2023 municipal elections. 

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The audits also discovered 300 duplicate voters in the elections system, which holds approximately 2 million voters’ records. Three Utahns voted twice during one election, while there were hundreds of incidents where two different voters shared the same driver’s license number, per the report.

The audit also faulted county clerks across the state for not properly adhering to Utah elections law, particularly the requirement to conduct a post-election audit of 1% of ballots received.

Utah Senate Minority Leader Luz Escamilla, who is a Democrat, blamed “improper implementation” of already existing safety mechanisms for the problems. 

Republican Senate President Stuart Adams noted that mail-in voting has led to improved participation rates in Utah, but also noted that voting in person could help eliminate other problems, including issues with signature verification.

“It’s also given people an opportunity to not be as forthright,” he said of mail-in voting. 

“Fraud has probably been a little easier with a mail-in ballot … than to show up and show your ID. So you see the pros and cons of both systems,” he added.