Utah congressional candidate contests election results in state Supreme Court as recount begins

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — With a recount underway, the closely trailing Republican challenger for Utah’s 2nd District U.S. House seat is contesting the primary election results in state Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to recover enough disqualified ballots to overtake his opponent.

Colby Jenkins was 214 votes, or 0.2 percentage points, behind U.S. Rep. Celeste Maloy when counties certified their results last month, placing the race within recount territory, which in Utah is when the difference in votes for each candidate is equal to or less than 0.25% of the total number of votes cast. Jenkins formally requested the recount on Monday but followed it up late Tuesday with a lawsuit contesting the certification of results over 1,171 ballots that had been disqualified for late postmarking.

Jenkins is suing Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, the state’s chief election officer and clerks in nine of the district’s 13 counties, claiming they were aware of ballot processing and postmarking delays but did not address the issue or inform voters that their ballots would not be counted. He is asking the Utah Supreme Court to direct those clerks to count all ballots disqualified because of invalid or late postmarks.

Henderson’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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