SALT LAKE CITY — Lt. Governor Deidre Henderson has advised county clerks to have more ballot dropboxes and in-person polling locations for the upcoming elections "just in case."
"But as far as voters are concerned? This election is going to be administered in the same way that the last election was administered," Utah's chief elections officer said in an interview Tuesday with FOX 13 News. "There won’t be any noticeable changes for them and I hope they can feel confident in that."
Lt. Gov. Henderson said she is glad to see issues resolving mail-in ballots settled by the courts, but had advice for voters, whether they choose to vote by mail or in-person: "There will probably be more things that come up between now and the election that might cause chaos and confusion. But in terms of actually administering elections? They need to go to the source, make sure they’re not giving into the fearmongering that might be out there."
Henderson under formal investigation by the Department of Justice:
The U.S. Department of Justice has sued Utah, demanding unredacted voter rolls, which includes Social Security numbers, birth dates, driver license and other personal information. Lt. Gov. Henderson has only offered to provide them what is already publicly available. Speaking to FOX 13 News, she said it is information she simply cannot give out.
"My job is to enforce the law. I’ve got to enforce state law and federal law and, you know, some of the things that we’ve been seeing and we’ve been pushed on in my opinion, and in the opinion of my attorneys, have been outside the scope of the law," Lt. Gov. Henderson said. "So it’s my duty to make sure that I uphold the law, that I’m not divulging personal information for our voters to people that don’t have the authority to get that information. I’m protecting everybody’s right to vote by simply following the law."
Voter rights groups that have jumped into the lawsuit have warned the DOJ is seeking to build a "national database" that they fear could be used to target people. The DOJ has argued in court it is necessary "to assess Utah’s compliance with the Help America Vote Act (“HAVA”) and the National Voter Registration Act (“NVRA”)."
Recently, Lt. Gov. Henderson found out in a letter that she is the subject of an investigation by the DOJ for her refusal to cooperate. Asked specifically about it, she told FOX 13 News: "This is something that needs to play out in court, not through threats and intimidation, letters threatening to put election officials, including the chief election officer of a state in jail or prison."
But she is not concerned.
"I’m not terribly worried about it at this point because if they’re going to investigate us for following the law? So far the courts are ruling we’re following the law," she said.
Asked how far she was willing to go, Lt. Gov. Henderson replied: "As far as I need to go."
"I mean, if we have a court, eventually the U.S. Supreme Court, telling us that we’re wrong? Then obviously we will follow that. But so far, nobody’s saying we’re wrong," she told FOX 13 News.
To date, 25 courts have sided with states who have refused to hand over voter personal information. None have sided with the Justice Department. The lawsuit against Utah has yet to get a hearing.
Her stance has won support. Voter rights groups have praised her refusal to back down and some, like the League of Women Voters and the NAACP, have joined her in court. The Democratic National Committee filed a brief in the lawsuit supporting Lt. Gov. Henderson, who is a Republican.
On Tuesday, a public opinion poll released by Noble Predictive Insights found 54% of Utahns surveyed supported Lt. Gov. Henderson's pushback on the federal government. The poll also found 58% had concerns about the federal government having access to voters' personal information (27% disapproved of the Lt. Governor's stance and felt the federal government didn't have enough access).
Asked about Governor Spencer Cox's stance on her positions, Lt. Gov. Henderson said: "He's very supportive of me."
Lt. Gov. Henderson said she would not speculate on the motives of some who seek to undermine voter confidence in elections, but urged people to go to county clerks to get their questions about how elections work answered. She said they can visit election centers to see equipment testing and ballots being counted.
"I want people to be confident in elections. But having election officials or public officials tell people that they should be confident isn’t necessarily going to make people suddenly more confident. What they need to do is understand the system," she said. "There’s 29 counties in Utah. Every county clerk actually runs the elections for their county. I encourage individuals to reach out to their county clerks. They desperately want to hear from people. They want to answer questions. They want to bring people in to their election centers and show people how things work."