President Joe Biden handily won Utah’s Democratic primary, and dominated in Summit County, on Tuesday. Ex-President Donald Trump appeared to have a big lead in his primary, but the Republican Party had only 1% of its votes counted by 11 p.m.
Summit County Republicans couldn’t give a time for when they could report theirs to the state party. The caucus site at Ecker Hill Middle School attracted a large crowd of Republicans.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that digital systems crashed at multiple Republican caucus locations. The Utah GOP had urged caucus attendees to pre-register through their website to make the check-in process go smoothly. Party officials said some precincts also were overwhelmed with the number of people who came to vote and in some places, not enough volunteers showed up to keep pace with the crowds.
The circumstances of the Republicans’ party-run in-person vote vs. a primary election like the Democrats held with ballots mailed through county elections offices didn’t appear to help. The Republicans chose to forgo the traditional primary election with a presidential preference poll instead.
Meantime, Biden locked up the Democratic primary with 87.5% of the votes statewide and over 92% of the votes in Summit County with 62% of the vote counted statewide by 11 p.m.
The Democratic caucus site at Park City High School likewise drew a bigger crowd than two years ago primarily to hear candidates for the Summit County Council pitch the crowd in hopes of attracting delegates.
Trump, with 1% of the precincts reporting statewide, led Nikki Haley 66% to 33% and was projected to win by at least 14 percentage points.