This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

After mediation by Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah County and five cities reached a compromise Monday that will avoid asking some voters to cast two different ballots — one in person and one by mail — in the Nov. 3 election.

"It's a good win all the way around for the voters," said Mark Thomas, the state's elections director for Cox.

Voters in Orem, Lehi, Alpine, Cedar Hills and Vineyard — with a third of the county's population — had faced the possibility of being asked to cast one ballot by mail for city candidates and a separate one in person on the countywide Proposition 1 to raise the sales tax for transportation.

That happened because Utah County Clerk-Auditor Bryan Thompson said those cities might have an unfair impact on Prop 1 because they vote by mail and could have much higher turnout than areas with traditional in-person voting.

So Thompson had insisted that everyone in the county go to the polls on Prop 1. For their part, the five cities said higher voter turnout is good and should not be discouraged, so they refused to discard it — creating a standoff that would require some voters to cast two ballots in two ways.

That happened — even though Salt Lake and Davis counties, which also are among 16 counties so far slated to vote on Prop 1 — had seen no problem with allowing some of their cities to vote by mail and others to cast ballots in-person.

The compromise reached Monday will allow the five Utah County cities still to vote by mail. Prop 1 will appear on a unified ballot with city candidates. But the county, instead of the cities, will print, mail and count the ballots.

Thompson's office also will send a postcard to residents in the county's 19 other cities and its unincorporated areas inviting voters there to obtain and cast absentee ballots by mail if they desire — sort of offering by-mail balloting in all areas.

"That solves our equal-access concerns," Thompson said. "Everybody feels comfortable with it."

Thomas called it a "huge win."

"Rather than telling voters you have to pay for two elections and vote twice," he said, "now it's an encouragement to go vote by mail."

Cameron Boyle, assistant to Lehi City Administrator Jason Walker, said the parties "came up with a great resolution."

"The local-option tax is a big deal," Boyle said, "and we want as many voters as possible to participate."

That's why Lehi pushed by-mail balloting, said Boyle, noting that the city had a voter turnout of 20 percent in the Aug. 11 primary, up from the 7.5 percent it logged two years ago. "It just about tripled."

"I appreciate the willingness of all parties to work together on this important issue," Cox said in a written statement. "Our focus must always be on what is best for voters, and I believe this resolution accomplishes that."

Thomas said the lieutenant governor's office waded into the controversy because Cox wanted to avoid any confusion.

"This is one of those cases where we need to be unified. Having a confusing and inconvenient system where you have to go to the polls and you have to vote by mail — and pay for it twice — just did not make sense," Thomas said. "We had to figure something out. We were able to facilitate that discussion."

He added that the lieutenant governor's office can be "above the fray a little bit where there is so much emotion and politics," and "can come in and be above it but help navigate it."

Thomas added, "The county and cities ultimately put their heads together and came up with a solution."

Prop 1 calls for raising the sales tax by a penny for every $4 in sales. Along the Wasatch Front, 40 percent of the money would go to the Utah Transit Authority for bus and rail service. The rest would go to cities and counties for local road projects.