The Statement of Votes Cast (SOVC) for the 2024 general election, available from Utah County, shows the vote for every candidate and proposition in every precinct of Utah County, as well and the number of registered voters and the number of votes cast in each precinct, from which we calculate voter turnout.
I’m an election junkie and therefore, perhaps, a bit of a spreadsheet junkie, so I dug in primarily to see how the various cities voted on Propositions 11 and 14, to create new school districts from the northern and western cities in the Alpine School District, respectively.
American Fork City Council election results won’t be certified for a couple more weeks, give or take, but additional ballots counted today and reported this afternoon take the apparent results from likely to virtually certain.
We won’t have a clear picture of turnout until the vote is certified, but if turnout is anything like the 38% we saw in 2021, there could be another thousand ballots out there and yet to be counted.
That said, with Ernie John leading Ken Sumsion by more than 500 votes for the third available seat on the council, a change in the final outcome is extremely unlikely.
Here are the unofficial results as of this evening, according to the Utah County website. (Rudimentary precinct data is available there too. Don’t get excited about the two precincts with zero votes. At the time of the primary election, there were only ten registered voters there, at least on the books, and none of them voted in the primary.)
Unofficial winners of four-year terms on the American Fork City Council are incumbent Clark Taylor, Tim Holley, and Ernie John. They’ll be sworn in just after New Year’s Day.
Clark Taylor
3,046 votes
25.41%
Tim Holley
2,824 votes
23.56%
Ernie John
2,429 votes
20.27%
Ken Sumsion
1,927 votes
16.08%
Jeff Shorter
1,760 votes
14.68%
Looking simply at numbers, this is an especially strong showing by Holley, who finished fourth in the primary voting. It’s a solid performance by John, who was third in the primary. It’s no surprise at all that Taylor, a popular incumbent, finished first in both elections.
Sumsion, a former Utah State Representative, finished second in the primary but slipped to fourth in the general election. Shorter, who served a four-year term on the council from 2014 through 2017, finished fifth in the general election after finishing sixth in the primary behind Austin Duke, who dropped out of the general election before the November ballots were printed.
Congratulations also to Kelly Smith, a former American Fork resident and still an active friend of all things AF. (One might even say she’s All About American Fork.) She won a second term on the Cedar Hills City Council. She finished first in a four-way race for three available seats.
County-wide turnout was 21.2%. (I’m rounding throughout.)
In American Fork we did slightly better: 22.5%
In my subjective view, that’s not bad for a primary election that was oddly, even awkwardly, timed and in which, to be frank, most candidates didn’t appear to do a lot to put their names and thoughts in front of the voters. The general election is oddly timed too, November 21, just before Thanksgiving, but I’m confident the voters will hear plenty from the remaining candidates by then.
Drilling down a little further, and excluding two odd little precincts with ten registered voters combined, turnout in the various precincts varied from to 11.1% to 29.3%. If you want to study the numbers and a precinct map, those are at the Utah County website.
(I think it’s all supposed to be available with numbers in a map here, but as of this writing, it isn’t working in my browser.)
If you’re not registered to vote at your current address but you’d like to be, here’s another link to the Utah County website for voter registration.
We’ll be back fairly regularly here with more information and analysis of candidates and the issues, between now and — good grief — the day before the day before Thanksgiving.
Is it just me, or has Election Day lost most of its sizzle, what with the meaningful vote count continuing for days thereafter — technically, weeks — and some doubt as to many of the results for a while? I used to jump in to report election results on Election Night, but now, well, it’s Friday, as you see. Here are some primary results.
I asked members of the American Fork City Council what they look for in city council candidates. I thought their view from the inside might be instructive. I also asked them about the work load, because conscientious prospective candidates want to know what it will take to do the job right.
Three of five city council seats are up for election in 2023, but only one incumbent, Clark Taylor, told me he’s running. The other two, Rob Shelton and Kevin Barnes, have publicly announced their intention not to run — Councilman Shelton after three terms in office and Councilman Barnes after two terms.
(Of course, until June 1, there are no candidates, and we’ll only know for sure who’s in and who’s out after June 7, the end of the filing period.)
What to Look for in a Candidate
All five city council members sounded common themes. Where their own votes in a city council election are concerned, they’re looking for:
men and women who work well with others, and who can disagree without being disagreeable;
people who already have a resume of civic engagement — not necessarily at the City, but if it is at the City, service on at least one committee or coaching in the recreation programs, working in the arts, etc.;
candidates who know about City government and don’t just assume that all the stereotypes and talking points from national and state government apply;
overlapping with the last two, candidates who are energized by more than a single issue, who won’t check out once they’ve accomplished — or failed to accomplish — the thing that motivated them; and
the words good and honest came up almost as often as work.
It will be a couple of weeks before the numbers are official — the key word is canvass — but even last-minute mail-in ballots won’t change the election results in American Fork’s 2021 municipal election.
Mayor Brad Frost won a second term, defeating challenger Tim Holley with about 79% of the vote (based on Thursday’s updated count).
The three-way race for two city council seats saw incumbents Staci Valentine and Ryan Hunter win with about 44% of the vote each, while challenger Carissa George finished with about 13%. (Numbers are rounded.) Valentine won a second term; Hunter won his first full term, after his appointment earlier this year to finish the remaining months of the late Barbara Christiansen’s term.
The PARC tax renewal passed with about 75% of the vote. By law, it will be up for a vote again in about ten years.
Congratulations to the winners. Heartfelt thanks to all who ran — and to all the voters who make the effort to cast informed votes. I don’t have turnout data yet, but at least 4,900 voters’ votes have been counted so far.
[Later note: Turnout in American Fork was 37.9 percent, according to county results (a CSV file). That’s excellent for a local election — and even more so when you consider that a significant percentage of voter registration records are for people who no longer live in American Fork. Well done, voters! That’s up from 34.6 percent in 2019 (CSV) and 31.7 percent in 2017 (PDF) — a happy trend.]
Thanks also to the thousands of people who spent some time at afelection.info during this election season. We hope it helped. As we like to say, always #learnBEFOREyouvote.
A final note: American Fork’s races weren’t close, but we don’t have to look far for one that is. In Highland’s city council race, where four candidates vie for two seats, the difference between winning and losing so far is a mere 20 votes. The result could easily change as last-minute votes are counted. For now, Scott Smith is in second place, narrowly leading Jerry Abbott.
If you’ve been waiting patiently, watching for American Fork election results to appear here, I apologize. Election Day was very nearly two weeks ago, and the results in American Fork weren’t close enough to worry that they might change as the last mail-in and provisional votes trickle in, until the official canvass. I was away on business that whole week, and very busy indeed, but I was home last week. I shouldn’t have needed all week to dig out, right?
Maybe it’s an age thing. Maybe it’s that the concept of Election Day, with its expected results, has become a fuzzy concept for me, with the advent of mail-in ballots and slower counts. In any case, here we are, with some results which are still unofficial, but final enough in our own races.
Remember how I said Tuesday night that there were two races to watch, because — mostly thanks to mail-in ballots — the school board results were too close to call? Utah County just released updated vote counts, and the second (prospective) winner in each race has changed. Continue reading
Note: These election results are updated as of Tuesday, November 21. These are the official results. The turnout is 40.34% in American Fork, which is excellent for an off-year election.
How cities voted on splitting Utah County's and Utah's largest school district, the Alpine School District. There were two propositions, Prop 11 and Prop 14, each applicable to several cities.
Straight talk about American Fork's proposed citywide municipal fiber optic broadband project, which isn't what we're getting from two of our city council candidates.
A small city needs good local journalism, for the same of good government and a sense of community. For decades American Fork, Utah, had the American Fork Citizen. Now we have it again.
"As the dust settles on the primary elections, I want to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you who believed in me and supported my campaign for American Fork City Council. Your encouragement, volunteer hours, and kind words have meant the world to me."
"None of our laws or regulations was put in place by evil people seeking to annoy the rest of us. Some might be outdated. Some might need upgraded. Some should probably be eliminated. But understanding why it was there in the first place is a good first step in not re-causing whatever made it necessary in the first place."
Today American Fork City Council candidate Austin Duke withdrew his name from the November general election ballot, citing "unforeseen personal and family considerations" and endorsing Clark Taylor, Ernie John, and Tim Holley.
There are nine candidates for American Fork City Council in September’s primary election. The top six will advance to the general election in November, to compete for three available seats. Terms are four years. Here are notes on interviews with the candidates. Updated August 24, 2023 (one candidate added)
Melinda (and earlier commenters), thanks for reading, and especially for sharing your thoughts.
I live in Orem. I voted for a split, knowing it would not pass. I don't actually think Orem alone…
General obligation bond ratings are based on the ability of the *communities* backing the bond to pay it. The communities…
David thanks again for another well thought out and very well explained opinion on a matter that is very important…
Thank you for your pragmatic approach and analysis. My path to a yes vote started with representation, 21 spread across…
I don’t know you at all, but my thought processes and conclusions have mirrored yours nearly exactly. My gut reaction…
Thank you for your thoughtful dive into these murky waters. As always, you bring clarity and common sense to the…
You have a gift, David. Thanks for sharing it with us all.
Thanks for your excellent election coverage!
David thanks for another excellent post. This is very articulate, clear, and easy to understand. Too bad this isn't required…
The author's name is displayed just under the title. Usually, as in this case, it's David Rodeback. Thanks for the…
Who is the author of these blog posts? This one is excellent.
I listened to this interview of the council candidates. I wish that all my neighbors would take the time to…
I had an almost word for word conversation with a candidate for city council from your example. He wasn't having…
The chamber did post a video! I'm glad they did. Here's the link to the debate: https://youtu.be/o4aI9MRoI_c?si=9j5JGKI1TVyL1ab2