This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Despite recent reports that many Americans fear violence during or after Election Day, Utah officials are adamant: There are no known threats to voter safety.
Even so, nobody's sure what to expect at polling places, given that Donald Trump has said his race against Hillary Clinton is "rigged" and that there are those among both candidates' supporters who regard the other's victory as the dawn of end times.
Tooele's Andrew Selph II, 55, said the result has been "bought and paid for" by Clinton, and should Trump pull off the unthinkable, "I think there's a lot of people in the Democratic Party who would be very angry."
Brigham Young University political science professor David Magleby has been working at polling places since he founded the Utah Colleges Exit Poll in 1982. Trump's fraud rhetoric and the possibility of coordinated voter intimidation have led Magleby to dread this election more than any other in his life, he said.
"There's a lot of people ... that may perceive this as kind of a make-or-break election, and therefore would perhaps do some crazy things."
An October poll from USA Today and Suffolk University found that a majority of Americans were either "very concerned" (20 percent) or "somewhat concerned" (31 percent) about political violence on Nov. 8 and its aftermath.
"It's an interesting election," said Utah elections director Mark Thomas. "You have the allegations of rigging the elections — I think that has people on edge. And then just worries about the election process: If something doesn't go right, is that just going to be the lighter that sets the fuse on fire?"
None of those interviewed believe it's likely that Utah will be on the front lines of the day's tumult (even if hometown independent challenger Evan McMullin has prompted some Trump backers to allege a "Mormon mafia" conspiracy and white nationalists to campaign against him).
Steve Hewitt, director of the Department of Public Safety's Statewide Information and Analysis Center, said his office was preparing an election report to send to law enforcement later in the week, but that there was no evidence of any brewing criminal activity.
Twenty-one of the state's 29 counties vote by mail. Utah County Clerk Bryan Thompson, who oversees what is by far the state's largest in-person operation, said he'd had no reports of any problems from the sheriff's office.
More likely than violent scenes, said Magleby, is that local volunteers "who are distrustful of the party and distrustful of the system, including the county clerks and election officials," would create an intimidating presence as they monitored the polling places.
Although a Loyola Law School professor has found only 31 cases of potential voter fraud among more than 1 billion votes cast between 2000 and 2014, nearly 28 percent of respondents to the USA Today-Suffolk University poll said if their favored candidate loses, it will be due to corruption.
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Oath Keepers • Selph agrees. An Air Force reservist, he's the Utah chapter director for Oath Keepers — a group branded militia by opponents but viewed internally as law-abiding defenders of bedrock constitutional principles.
The group notably sided with rancher Cliven Bundy during an April 2014 standoff in Bunkerville, Nev., and appointed itself a guardian of Ferguson, Mo., during 2014 riots that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown.
Founder Stewart Rhodes last week issued a YouTube call for the group's members to act as silent, "incognito" observers at the polls. Should they observe potential fraud, he said, they should alert authorities rather than confront voters.
Rhodes told The Salt Lake Tribune that while the effort stemmed from reports of corruption by Democratic campaign officials, his organization isn't partisan.
"I don't trust either party," Rhodes said, adding that he worked on the Washington, D.C., staff of former Texas Congressman Ron Paul and "I've seen corruption inside the Republican Party firsthand."
Thomas said Rhodes' expressed vision is "what you would hope for in any poll watcher — that they're not trying to incite any violence or chaos at the polling location, but they just said to carefully document issues."
His concern would be a repeat of the behavior at a 2007 municipal election in Ogden.
Then, members of one campaign gave poll watchers a list of 150 likely nonsupporters they wished to "challenge," meaning those voters had to provide proof of identity and residency and fill out a provisional ballot that was more likely to be tossed based on technicalities. The incident prompted 2010 legislation that requires poll watchers to have firsthand knowledge of the basis for a challenge.
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Chilling effect • Magleby said the presence of groups like Oath Keepers can have a chilling effect even if they don't confront voters. Utah County voters, for instance, will expect to see neighbors and friends at the polls, he said, and "it will be quite obvious if there are outsiders there."
Poll workers already endure long, hassle-filled days, Magleby added, without "the specter of somebody standing a few feet away and watching their every move."
The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a Washington, D.C.-based group, issued a statement condemning Rhodes' plan as "vigilantism and extremism" that seems "directed against minority communities."
Clinton's general counsel, meanwhile, is suing Trump and backer Roger Stone in Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Ohio alleging voter intimidation for volunteer exit polling coordinated by Stone's website, StopTheSteal.org.
Stone has said he isn't collaborating with the Trump campaign or the Republican National Committee.
Utah voters may have a tough time spotting anybody from StopTheSteal.org or Oath Keepers among the sea of red attire that Trump backers have been encouraged to wear to the polls.
As of Wednesday, Stone's website had just 28 registered Utah exit pollers. Last week, Selph organized a conference call with Rhodes for the state's Oath Keepers. Total participants besides Selph and Rhodes: two.
Thompson, the Utah County clerk, said he hopes that people will have faith that their county officials have prepared for all contingencies.
"Once we allow intimidation and other things to affect us, then the other side wins — whoever that other side may be."
Twitter: @matthew_piper