All the defendants are charged with a misdemeanor count of "fraudulent registration." The charge carries as much as one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.
The charges originate from complaints over the 2006 election for Daggett County sheriff. The winner, Rick Ellsworth, was accused of helping to register people who did not live in the county. Ellsworth is not charged with any crimes, though at least three people who share his surname are among the defendants.
When reached by telephone today, Ellsworth declined comment. The Republican sheriff won the election over Democratic rival Allen Campbell by 20 votes out of 594 ballots cast.
Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the Utah attorney general, said investigators were unable to identify a ringleader behind the alleged fraud.
"The allegations [against Ellsworth] were there, but that was essentially impossible to prove," Murphy said. "What we were able to show was people improperly registered because they lived in a different county."
Campbell said today he requested the attorney general investigate voter fraud after he lost the election to Ellsworth. Campbell examined a voter registration list provided by the Daggett County clerk in 2006 and found 14 adults listed at the address of Ellsworth's parents, George and Juanita Ellsworth of Manila.
"I'm very happy that this has happened," Campbell said of the charges. "I just didn't realize it would take 1 1/2 years to act on," he said.
Campbell can't contest the 2006 election results because his opportunity to do so has elapsed. He said it would be difficult to prove if any of the accused fraudulently registered voters cast votes in the 2006 sheriff's election - and if those votes impacted the outcome of the race.
News of the charges was met with neutrality by one Daggett County commissioner.
Reached in Vernal late today, Commissioner Floyd Briggs said he'd been told charges would be filed against several people in the county, but didn't want to comment on the sheriff's possible involvement with alleged fraudulent registration.
"I don't have an opinion on whether he was or he wasn't involved," said Briggs.
Attempts to reach Daggett County attorney Bryan Sidwell on this evening for comment on the charges were unsuccessful.
The defendants remain free and likely will receive summons to appear in 8th District Court in Manila.
One defendant, Philo A. Ellsworth, is a 79-year-old Salt Lake City resident who is registered to vote in Salt Lake County. When reached for comment today, he told a reporter "I don't know what you're talking about," and hung up the telephone.
Allegations of voter-fraud is the latest blemish to hit controversy-plagued Daggett County.
State Corrections Director Tom Patterson last year ordered the removal of state prisoners from the county's jail after two convicted murderers escaped from the facility Sept. 23. The men slipped through an unlocked back door and scaled a fence. They spent six days on the lam before being apprehended in Wyoming.
Patterson removed state inmates because of security concerns. County commissioners then proposed a property tax increase for residents, citing lost revenue for the county after the jailbreak.
The sheriff's office also came under fire last month after an investigation by television station KSL revealed that four Daggett County jail guards were the recipients of new homes through an affordable housing program sponsored by the county. Other county residents applied for the housing, but four of six new homes went to jail guards, who often oversaw construction of their own homes while inmates built them as part of a jail trade program, the news station found.
