OREM, Utah — Utah County Attorney David Leavitt has accused the chief deputy of the county clerk's office of a conflict of interest involving an issue on Tuesday's Election Day ballot.
In a memo issued Friday to Utah County Clerk/Auditor Josh Daniels, Leavitt lays out the reasons for the accusations against chief deputy Taylor Williams.
Leavitt says Williams' involvement with a group opposing Orem City Proposition 2 "needs to be addressed," according to the memo. The proposition will decide whether Orem will break away from the Alpine School District and form their own.
"I have real concerns about your chief deputy’s political activities related to Proposition 2 and the effect those activities have already had and will yet have on the public’s perception of the election’s integrity," wrote Leavitt.
It's not known what role Williams plays in the opposition to Proposition 2, but Leavitt claims the chief deputy is receiving payment from a political campaign.
The memo appears to show that Daniels and his office are working with Williams to keep him away from some of his election administration duties, but Leavitt adds that it's not enough.
"...in my view these efforts are insufficient to overcome the reality that your chief deputy supervises every employee charged with the tasks of ensuring the
fairness of our electoral processes," said Leavitt.
Leavitt recommended steps for Daniels to implement to resolve a potential conflict of interest involving Williams, including to make sure the chief deputy has no "supervisory connection" to the election duties of the clerk's office and that Williams does not have access to the ballot center of election computer systems.
He also suggested the following:
- Tallying the count, to date, of Proposition 2, keeping a record of that count and then not using the count as it represents ballots counted while the chief deputy held supervisory duties over the elections processes and personnel
- Recounting the ballots of Proposition 2 and using that count as that count will have been taken after your chief deputy is removed from supervising election processes or personnel.
In response to the accusations, Daniels told FOX 13 News, "the chief deputy's job is largely administrative and is not involved in the counting of ballots."
