BOUNTIFUL—Republican caucuses were held across Davis County Tuesday night for residents to vote in the Republican Presidential Primary Election and to vote for State and County Delegates. However, in some precinct locations there were some hiccups when the registration site was overwhelmed with too much traffic at once.  

“Things were going smoothly and we had a good process to move voters through check in,” said Yemi Arunsi, Chair of the Davis County Republican Party. “Sometime during the night the registration website was having difficulty loading. Calls came in and in the moment we made the call to go ‘old school’ with the paper method.”

The format was the way it’s always been done in the past, he said. “We use voter registration and check it with ID. The voter list is the most up to date for Davis County.”

There was a short window of delay and then caucus volunteers jumped right in with paper, said Arunsi. “We had a plan and we executed it. We had a live role play practice last week to see what it would look like if we had a shutdown. I have a military background so we’re always prepared.”

There were some reports that people didn’t get to vote. “Those not registered only got turned away if they were a Democrat or underage,” he said. “They have to turn 18 before the November election. If they were unaffiliated they were not on the list to register but they had the option for a paper document they could fill out and then they could participate in the caucus.”

 Arunsi said he wants to get a sense of what happened. “The feedback I got was that things were going well. There’s always going to be a line but anecdotally we heard locations were moving people through.”

Bountiful resident Andrea Edwards said she brought in her 17-year-old daughter but was told she couldn’t vote because the registration date was Feb. 23. “I had looked on the precinct portal and it said you could register the day of. I pushed back then went to the precinct secretary who said she could register. So she (daughter) voted.”

Clearly everyone there needs to know the rules on who can vote or not, said Edwards. “Especially teens. This is their first experience with the democratic system. We need to allow them to exercise their right to vote. We need to double down on education in schools so there’s more participation. A lot of kids don’t even know they can vote (at caucus) before they turn 18.”

“It was the Davis County spirit of preparation that put us through,” said Arunsi. “I want to thank all of the volunteers for all of their work. We want inclusion for all and to get people involved. We hope to make this an experience for everyone.”