Cache County elections worker allegedly alters document, charged with felony
CACHE COUNTY, Utah (ABC4) — A former poll worker for the Cache County Clerk’s Office has been charged with a felony after allegedly altering an election-related document to the Lieutenant Governor’s Office during the 2023 General Election.
According to charging documents, Dustin James Hansen, 31, of Nibley was responsible for providing the Lieutenant Governor’s Office with a document that proved testing of ballot tabulation machines. Hansen allegedly edited the document to show a different completion date of the tests than when they were actually done.
He has now been charged with willful neglect of duty and corrupt conduct by a poll worker, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in state prison.
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A ‘deeply troubling’ audit
Hansen’s charges come after the office of Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson completed a review of Cache County’s municipal general election held in November 2023. In a letter written to Cache County Clerk David Benson, Henderson said a review of the elections resulted in findings that were “deeply troubling.”
“My team not only found an unprecedented lack of controls, widespread violations of Utah election law and administrative rule but also a pointed disregard for policy and practices established by my office,” wrote Henderson.
Henderson’s office found the County Clerk’s office failed to complete the accuracy and logic tests of the ballot tabulating machines before running ballots for counting. Her office was then provided the falsified report allegedly edited by Hansen.
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In addition, Henderson’s office also found the Cache County Clerk’s office had “repeatedly violated” a chain of custody of practices for ballots, saying they were not properly retrieved, handled, batched, documented and stored.
Overall, Henderson’s office found 31 errors in their report, though the errors in practice had not affected the primary or general election. Henderson still shared her grave concerns saying failure to fix the issues created opportunities for fraud and election manipulation.
Benson’s response
In a letter to Cache County constituents on Friday, Feb. 16, Benson said he requested the audit in December after elections staff with Henderson’s office alerted him to some concerns with the falsified documents. He said he agreed with her office’s assessment that the findings were serious and needed to be “vigorously pursued.”
Throughout December, Benson worked with his own staff, the Cache County Director of Personnel Management and the Cache County Attorney’s Office to perform an investigation.
“In order to ensure the integrity, thoroughness, and rapidity of that effort, I placed two of my elections staff members on administrative leave and voluntarily recused myself from the Clerk/Auditor office until such time as the Cache County Attorney’s Office was confident we could return without any hint of interfering with or unduly hastening their investigation,” said Benson.
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Benson returned to his position as Cache County Clerk on Jan. 8, after he was assured the investigation was coming to an end. One of the two election workers was also brought back from administrative leave.
Benson confirmed that the other worker placed on administrative leave – identified as Hansen – had resigned from employment while still on leave on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
“In the spirit of transparency, I am committed to sharing any additional, unrestricted facts regarding this investigation as they may become available to me,” wrote Benson. “I am equally committed to maintaining the confidentially of any personal, private, or otherwise withheld information protected by law.”
What’s next
The Lieutenant Governor’s office provided the Cache County Clerk’s office with several key recommendations to correct the election concerns they found in their report. Such recommendations include office employees reviewing Utah election law and administrative rules as well as ways to fix specific issues found in the report.
Benson confirmed on Tuesday, Feb. 13 that 27 of 31 recommendations had already been addressed and there are plans in place to have the remaining four addressed by Feb. 29. Benson also invited the Lt. Gov.’s Office to review the Cache County Clerk’s office elections to be held in March, June and November of this year to ensure compliance.
The First District Court of Cache County has issued a summons for Hansen to appear in court for his felony charge though a court date has yet to be set for his initial appearance.
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