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OGDEN - Voters whose rights to cast ballots in Ogden's election were challenged Tuesday are filing complaints with Weber County, even as two narrow races - that for mayor and a City Council seat - remain undecided.
Some 500 to 550 provisional ballots will be scrutinized beginning at 7 a.m. today, said Gloria Berrett, Weber County's elections administrator.
Those found to be legitimately filed will be counted today. The 894 absentee ballots and others arriving by mail will not be counted until Tuesday, she said.
At the end of Tuesday's count of early and Election-Day ballots, Mayor Matthew Godfrey had a 181-vote lead over challenger Susan Van Hooser. Council candidate Sheila Aardema had an 18-vote edge over Blain Johnson. Two other council races were not so close.
Candidate representatives, as well as officials in the Ogden City Recorder's Office, were not all available to observe the counting Thursday. Instead, elections officials counted provisional ballots cast in other Weber County cities.
Berrett attributes the extraordinary number of provisional ballots to both heavy turnout for the voucher measure and the hotly contested Ogden mayoral race.
Voters whose right to cast ballots was challenged have been complaining since Tuesday about what they considered intimidation by Godfrey supporters, Berrett said.
The mayor's backers had submitted two lists totaling 150 names that they wanted challenged, so when those voters arrived at the polls Tuesday, they were not allowed to vote electronically. All should have been offered provisional ballots, which require proof of identity and proof of residency.
Berrett said, however, that she and County Clerk Alan McEwan were called repeatedly Tuesday by people complaining they were turned away from the polls and not offered provisional ballots.
Others claimed they were "bullied" by Godfrey backers, Berrett said.
Now, some formal complaints are beginning to arrive in the clerk's and County Attorney Mark DeCaria's offices.
Lisa Konicek sent a written complaint Thursday. She said she and her husband were both on the list and felt targeted because they were connected to a group perceived as anti-Godfrey.
"It felt like harassment," said Konicek. "That seems 'specific and targeted' as opposed to be someone who is genuinely concerned about the election process. The intent is a little more nefarious than that."
Aardema, whose children and their spouses were on the list, said she found the challenge list insulting to Ogden voters.
Godfrey's supporters, she said, were "taking the law and using it to harass candidates."
McEwan said anyone can challenge anyone else's right to vote, so the challenge lists were within the law.
Jason Godfrey, who was a poll watcher for his brother, said part of the problem is that Ogden voters unused to techniques commonly used elsewhere may have misunderstood what he and other poll watchers were doing.
He said he listened as each voter gave his or her name to the election judge and then affixed a bar code to a list of Godfrey supporters, so that in the waning hours of election day, the campaign could call those who had not yet voted and remind them to get to the polls.
"There was no nefarious motive here. The instructions were to get out the vote."