Utah House District 72 GOP primary race still too close to call as Elison leads again

Sean Hemmersmeier, St. George Spectrum & Daily News
·2 min read
Joe Elison, a candidate running for Utah House District 72, speaks as his opponent, Willie Billings, looks on during a debate hosted by the Washington County Republican Party for local candidates ahead of the upcoming primary election. The debates were held at the Dixie Convention Center in St. George on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.
Joe Elison, a candidate running for Utah House District 72, speaks as his opponent, Willie Billings, looks on during a debate hosted by the Washington County Republican Party for local candidates ahead of the upcoming primary election. The debates were held at the Dixie Convention Center in St. George on Tuesday, May 17, 2022.

The positions of the tightly-contested House District 72 Republican primary election flipped again on Thursday after a third round of voting results were released, showing Joseph Elison leading Willie Billings by just seven votes, or 0.09%.

  • Joseph Elison: 4,064 votes / (50.04%)

  • Willie Billings: 4,057 votes / (49.96%)

  • Total votes: 8,121

The difference between these two candidates has been razor-thin since the initial election results were posted on Tuesday. Those initial results showed Elison led by 40 votes, but when the Washington County Clerk's office added 187 votes to the total, Billings took the lead by 35 votes.

Another 1,622 votes were added to the total on Thursday as late-arriving ballots continued to be counted, but no clear lead was gained. Elison gained 832 votes in the most recent update while Billings got 790 additional votes.

House District 72 has a Republican primary battle between Joseph Elison and Willie Billings both of whom haven't been elected to public office before but do have signs on display in Hurricane, UT. June 28, 2022.
House District 72 has a Republican primary battle between Joseph Elison and Willie Billings both of whom haven't been elected to public office before but do have signs on display in Hurricane, UT. June 28, 2022.

This is the closest state house race in Washington County and all of Utah. In Washington County, the two other primary races for House District 73 and 74, the difference between the winning and losing candidates were both about 26 percentage points.

The second closest primary is for House District 46 where Jeff Stenquist leads Carolyn Phippen by 300 votes or about 7.4%, which isn't close enough for a recount unlike the District 72 race.

Previous coverage: Billings, Lee, Stewart take lead in primary

If the difference between Elison and Billings remains extremely close, it could head towards a recount. Utah Code allows for a recount when the difference between the winning and losing candidate is 0.25%, based on the current results as of Thursday that difference would be close to 20 votes.

Currently, the Washington County election's website shows that there 1,672 outstanding votes but don't specify how many of these votes are in District 72.

It still remains to be seen if the race is tight enough to merit a recount since Utah Code only allows for a recount to be initiated at the request of the losing candidate after the results of the election are made official through the election canvass done by the county clerk. The canvass date for an election typically takes place one to two weeks after the election date.

If the race does qualify for a recount, the county clerk's office would need to supervise a recount of every ballot cast in this race and make sure uncounted ballots weren't included for the proper reasons.

After the recount finishes and the vote tallies are updated, the candidate with the most votes win.

Sean Hemmersmeier covers local government, growth and development in Southwestern Utah. Follow on Twitter @seanhemmers34. Our work depends on subscribers so if you want more coverage on these issues you can subscribe here: http://www.thespectrum.com/subscribe. 

This article originally appeared on St. George Spectrum & Daily News: Southern Utah GOP primary too close to call, may lead to recount