(upbeat music) - Voting is one of the most important elements in the landscape of American democracy.

But misinformation around elections is growing, both here in Utah and across the United States, subjecting election officials to new levels of public scrutiny.

- Until recently, it's been easy to dismiss these efforts as fringe.

- Voting by mail is one target of these attacks by those hoping to sow discord and distrust.

So how does the vote by mail system work?

And what are the effects of the attacks on election systems and those who work within them?

I'm Cailley Chella, and this is, "Utah Insight".

(upbeat music) Utah stands apart as the only Republican led state with a primarily vote by mail system.

But Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson says she's seeing growing skepticism among moderates, a trend that challenges Utah's established trust in its vote by mail process.

- Over the past few years, our election system has been overwhelmed by demands and disruption from individuals who are best described as election vigilantes, who claim to value the constitution and rule of law while violating both.

- [Cailley] Meanwhile, county clerks like Lannie Chapman have been working to increase transparency in elections.

- - Very few people have access not only to the basement of this building, but to this room.

So let's go in.

- [Cailley] She gave us a tour of where the county's hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots are processed using a meticulous system to make sure each vote is counted.

Salt Lake County Sheriff's deputies are tasked with collecting ballots from official ballot boxes and dropping them off.

- [Lannie] When ballots come in through either the drop boxes or through the post office, this is where they first start.

- [Cailley] The first step is removing the privacy tab that covers your signature.

- After we remove the signature tab, we'll run them through our Agilis machines.

- [Cailley] Agilis machines do a couple things, one of which is taking pictures of the signatures to verify them.

Chapman says about 50% of signatures are accepted by the machines.

Upstairs in her main office, Chapman and her team work to verify the rest.

- [Lannie] We'll look at the driver's license signature, the first time they registered to vote, when they changed their party affiliation, prior affidavits, so we have a multitude of signatures that we can verify it against.

- [Cailley] Our audio engineer, Nathan, gave permission for her to analyze his signature on camera.

- [Lannie] So it looks like the way that you start your name here and you go down, up around to this large... - It's a T. - Okay.

- Yeah.

- Sure.

(Nathan and Lannie laughing) We'll go with T. - [Cailley] If none of the signatures match, Chapman mails out a notice to fix it called a cure letter, within 48 hours.

- We're able to verify most of them.

It's a very small percentage per election that are sent a cure letter.

- [Cailley] Once signatures are verified, ballots are opened.

Once a ballot is separated from its envelope, it can no longer be tracked back to the voter.

Then ballots are inspected to make sure they're ready for the scanners.

If there are any issues, like a misplaced mark, teams of two work together to make sure the right vote is counted.

Then the ballots go to the tabulation room, and this room has another layer of security.

- This room is air gapped, so there's nothing that is connected to the internet in this room.

And again, key access, only two people have a key to this room.

- [Cailley] Here, scanners read the ballots and votes are recorded into a secured system.

- We can't even look at what the results are until after 8:00 PM on election night.

- The ballots are then stored for a minimum of 22 months, in case of a recount or a court contest, and then they're incinerated.

And that is the end of a life cycle of a vote by mail ballot in Salt Lake County.

But the election process begins long before you cast your vote.

Year round county clerks like Chapman are checking the voter rolls to make sure only those who are legally allowed to cast a vote do.

- We work with Vital Statistics to take off people that have passed away.

And we do that within five business days of getting notice of it.

If you don't vote in two federal elections, we will remove you.

We are constantly updating our records to make sure that they are as accurate and clean as possible, in large part because we don't want to send a ballot to a house where somebody doesn't reside.

That's a waste of money and that puts a ballot where it shouldn't be.

- [Cailley] And there are consequences for those who try to skirt the system by say, voting twice, or knowingly signing someone else's ballot.

- We refer those to the District Attorney's office.

So we take this very seriously.

- [Cailley] In the months leading up to the election, poll workers get trained and election workers test both in person and vote by mail machines to ensure their accuracy.

- We do a logic and accuracy test.

That's something that's open to the public, where we test all the scanners, we test the ICX, again, the in-person voting machine to make sure that it correctly tabulates votes.

And that's something that we do before every election.

- [Cailley] Amidst this work, a shadow looms, election denialism.

Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson is Utah's chief election officer, overseeing Chapman and the 28 other county clerks across Utah.

Henderson says, "Increasing threats and misinformation surrounding elections take a toll on everyone".

- Two thirds of our county clerks are new since 2020.

Part of that is because the environment, it just became so challenging, the scrutiny so intense.

The local election workers, they have to go to church and the grocery store and walk their dogs and with people in their communities who are accusing them of rigging things or allowing some sort of fraud to happen.

It's really hard.

- [Cailley] A study conducted in 2023 by the Reed College Survey found that more than 80% of local election officials across the country are women.

Chapman says her office has a similar makeup.

- [Lannie] In my full-time team, I have about one 10th of them are men, the remainder are female.

- When it comes to the majority of your staff being female and the more threatening nature of elections in this country right now, I mean, is that something that you have to navigate?

Is that something that is thought about?

- It's definitely something that keeps me up at night.

We've worked really hard to have contingency and crisis plans to make sure that my team is safe, that our volunteers or poll workers are safe, and frankly, the public stays safe.

- [Cailley] Meanwhile, Henderson has been working to stop the threats by countering misinformation.

- Questions and concerns are welcome.

But if someone is spreading salacious rumors that shake your confidence in our elections, stop and ask yourself what their motivation could be.

- [Cailley] All while navigating threats and harassment herself.

- I get very explicit comments.

I get called very gendered names.

I've gotten some rapey type threats.

It's really difficult to even say some of the things that I've been called, or some of the things that have been directed toward me.

- [Cailley] According to the Brennan Center for Justice, reported threats and harassment toward election workers have increased by 8% nationally since 2023.

In late September, the FBI intercepted a letter with an unknown white substance in it meant for Henderson.

And she says, it's all taken a personal toll.

(somber music) - I've definitely changed my behavior.

I'm definitely more guarded.

I definitely don't get out into the community the way I would like to.

(tense music) I have to remind myself that this is temporary, and sometimes that's the only thing that helps me get through.

There are people that are going to target me or either verbally or otherwise, because of the fact that I'm fulfilling my duty, fulfilling my oath of office, upholding the law, and it's a lonely position to be in.

And it has definitely taken a toll on me and on my family.

I've had to really work at not becoming a hermit in my house.

There's definitely a chilling effect that has come over me as I have faced threats and harassment, not just from random unknown people online, but from people in my own community and sometimes even really close by where I live.

- [Cailley] Still, Henderson says the more important effect of election denialism is the threat to the system as a whole.

- These are not just threats to us, these are threats that are intended really to disrupt our system, to disrupt our processes.

They're really threats to the voters.

They're threats to our democracy.

They're threats to the systems, the political institutions that are in place to preserve individual rights and secure a free government.

- Do you ever think about quitting?

- [Deidre] Every day.

- Why don't you?

(Deidre laughs) (tense music) - On the times that I really feel like quitting, I remind myself, I'm not here for me.

I am here to not just do a job, but to make things better while I can.

- [Cailley] And so she's committed, both to her duty and to ensuring that trust in elections continues for future generations.

- [Deidre] It's an honor to be in these positions of public trust, it really is.

It's not easy, (clapping) it's not a fun time to oversee elections, but I think those are the times that are even more important, right?

I'm not gonna get a gold star for doing my duty, it's my duty.

- [Cailley] And right now she says the people of Utah have an even more important role.

- [Deidre] You know, we can't do this alone.

Regular citizens are going to have to understand their role in preserving and protecting our free government, or we'll lose it.

Regular citizens cannot be uninterested bystanders or active participants in undermining people's confidence and trust in our system.

(Upbeat Music)