A trip to the Salt Lake County Elections Office the day after presidential voting was an eye opener to Will Buckley, a Sandy Youth Council second-year member and co-chair of the group’s policy committee.

“It was interesting seeing how impactful each of the votes were because they counted,” Buckley said. “They counted every single vote.” 

It was Buckley’s first year to vote and he said being able to see every vote go through the office cemented his desire to vote in college and throughout his life.

He and about 10 other youth council members, including Vitalia Sun and Aurora Clare, were led on a tour of the facility by Salt Lake County Clerk Lannie Chapman to see how ballots are counted, verified and secured.

“It was so wonderful to meet with the Sandy Youth Council and show them (and their families) Salt Lake County’s Ballot Processing Center,” Chapman said. “They had thoughtful questions which I was glad to answer to ensure they have a better understanding of election administration in Utah.”

“It is incredible to meet a group of teens that are already focused on public service, I know we will see great things from them in years to come,” Chapman said.

For youth councilmember Vitalia her understanding and appreciation of the process, especially the manpower it takes to count ballots, grew during the tour.

“I was expecting there to be very few people working in the facility and it basically just being computers and robots counting the ballots,” Vitalia said. “However, to my surprise, there were so many people there, from counting ballots, to sitting at the computer and verifying ballots, to helping sort the different ballots, to just cutting signatures out of ballots.”

While people were working the stations, she also mentioned the many safeguards ensuring the correctness of the voting count.

Vitalia met pairs of workers called adjudicators who “sit together with their partner at a computer and view the ballots the computer that counts them was unable to interpret.”

“Then they would proceed to mark who they think the voter was trying to vote for and move onto the next ballot,” she said. “And the fun part is the screens of their computers is broadcasted on big monitors so other people, and us, were able to watch their decisions live.”

She said visiting the facility gave her “a greater appreciation of the work that goes into this whole process of electing leaders for our people and an appreciation for the fact that there are so many safeguards in place to ensure every vote is counted accurately.”

Aurora noted visiting the facility opened her eyes to the work that goes into the election process by people “who do not receive credit for the work they do.”

“There were so many people working hard to make sure the election results were accurate and came out in a timely manner,” she said.

Youth council advisor, Elizabeth Theriault noted in a post on the Sandy City Council’s Facebook page “it isn't every day you get to see firsthand the official process of counting ballots after a presidential election.” 

“Thank you to Salt Lake County Election Division for giving our Sandy Youth Council an amazing and educational tour of the Election Office,” Theriault wrote in the post.