Series 364

SECRETARY OF STATE [603]

ELECTION PAPERS, 1851-1976
33.6 cu. ft. and 65 microfilm reels

DESCRIPTION: The election papers reflect the territorial secretary's, and then the secretary of state's, duties in preparing for elections of government officials and votes on referenda, initiatives, constitutional amendments, and bond issues. The papers also record results of these elections and document appointments of officials in the absence of an election. Types of papers included are: returns; bonds, oaths, and certificates or lists of elected and appointed officials; claims; declarations of candidacy; nominations; party convention materials; expense statements; newspaper ownership affidavits; initiative petitions and related materials; amendment printing information; filing fee apportionment materials; and miscellaneous correspondence. Papers run from 1851 to 1976, but after 1965 consist only of an abstract of returns for the state. Other materials begin to break off into separate series by 1960.

Territorial Period

Election and appointment: Most territorial positions (eg. governor, territorial secretary, chief justice, associate justice, US marshall and US attorney) were federally appointed unless the governor chose to1appoint a pro temp official. Legislative assembly positions and a territorial delegate to the US congress were popularly elected. County and municipal positions were gubernatorially appointed until legal provisions were made for elections. Territorial agency positions were appointed by the governor or elected by two-thirds vote of the legislature. These positions include librarian, territorial marshall, University of Deseret regents, sealer of weights and measures, members of board of pharmacy and medical examiners, members of the Deseret Agricultural Manufacturing Society, militia/governor's staff, directors of reform school or insane asylum, etc. Papers are present for all these offices.

In 1851, territorial law called for annual August elections for openings at the precinctlevel or higher unless otherwise specified by law. Through the territorial years various offices went to biennial elections, until in 1892 the territory as a whole moved to staggered biennial November elections. Even years were for territorial, county, and precinct offices; odd years for municipal, school district, and legislative offices.

Categories of documents: Territorial period papers consist of three basic categories: 1) returns 2) bonds/certificates/oaths, and 3) claims. Returns give vote counts for various offices or issues from municipal level up. Related correspondence, particularly in a contested election, may be included. Returns are missing from 1882 through 1891 with the exception of Iron County in 1888 and of Box Elder County and an Ogden school election in 1890. There was no election in 1882 itself as a result of the anti-polygamy Edmunds Act; all offices were declared vacant and the vacancies filled with appointees. Appointees are listed in the Executive Record books (series 242).

Bonds, oaths, and certificates may be three separate documents or one. Officials had to file a monetary guarantee for their performance in office, nullified if the duties were properly performed, forfeit otherwise. While these bonds are sometimes found in this series, often they were filed with the treasurer or public auditor. A sworn statement was then included on the certificate that bonds had been properly filed. Oaths appear at all levels of office and include oaths of office, oaths of loyalty to the union following the Civil War, and oaths disavowing polygamy after the Edmunds Act. Again, there may simply be a sworn statement that an oath was taken. Certificates of appointment made by the president and congress, by the governor and legislature, by county courts, or city councils appear regularly. Certificates of election also appear regularly.

Claims for election costs incurred at the local or county level appear from 1851 through 1853. Claims were to be submitted to the county clerk who would then obtain reimbursement from the legislature. There seems to have been some confusion on where to file claims, and on occasion, bills were routed to numerous offices before being turned over to the claims commission.

Papers relating to the formation of new precincts, or clarifying the existence of old ones, appear most often after an 1888 act to standardize county and municipal elections. However, redistricting materials appear irregularly throughout the series well into statehood.

Statehood Period

Election and certification of officials: Beginning with statehood in 1896, general elections were held in even years. Political parties held conventions to nominate candidates and choose symbols. New parties could form and choose candidates by petition; candidates were to file an acceptance of the nomination. Expense statements of parties and individual candidates were filed with the secretary of state in 1896 and were open for public inspection; this provision was repealed in 1897. Returns for district (eg. district judge), state, and federal offices plus constitutional amendments were compiled and filed by county clerks. (While lists of county officials were compiled after 1906, returns for county and local elections did not have to be filed until 1959.) A statewide abstract was prepared and filed by the Board of State Canvassers. Board minutes are frequently included with the returns.

Bonds, certificates, and oaths appear for federal, county and precinct, and municipal offices in 1896 but are generally dropped thereafter except for the federal level. The federal level includes certificates for US senators and for presidential electors. Senators were elected by the legislature until 1916 when they became popularly elected. Materials pertaining to the meeting of, and the vote cast by, the electors are included with their certificates of election issued by the governor.

In 1906, the secretary of state requested that the county clerks include with their returns a list of elected and appointed county officials for compiling in his biennial report. In 1907 it became law for each county clerk to certify such a list to the secretary. The list was to include every elected or appointed officer except justice of the peace and constable. The secretary was to file the originals plus compile a bound book (series 354). Certificates for state legislative positions appear as well from 1918 into the mid 1920s, and again in the late 1950s. A list of designated iterim successors is present in 1961.

Initiatives: In 1917 new election laws provided for popular presentation of legislative initiatives. An application for petition was filed with the secretary of state who had circulation sheets printed. The signed sheets, with verified signatures, were then returned to the secretary who arranged for a ballot title and provided for publication, or sometimes individual mailing, of publicity on the initiatives.

Campaign Expenses: The Anti-Corrupt Practices Act of 1917 reintroduced the filing of campaign expense statements for individual candidates, their personal campaign committees, political parties and political action groups. No name could appear on the ballot without this filing. Further, no publisher could run any political matter or editorial unless he had filed a sworn statement containing the names of newspaper owners, including shareholders.

Direct Primary: In 1937 the Direct Primary Act was passed. An individual could declare candidacy and party affiliation or the same could be done by petition and acceptance. A filing fee was collected which was later apportioned among the various counties. The candidate receiving a majority in the primary automatically became the nominee of the party at a convention before the general election; if there was no majority, the candidate faced a run-off election. Independent candidates filed by petition for the general election only. The secretary of state was to oversee these functions and keep the county clerks informed, particularly of names and materials to appear on the ballots.

For 1938 and 1940 in particular, this created much new material: additional information to the county clerks, ballot preparation material, candidate withdrawal updates, legal opinions, scheduling procedures. For 1940 the major issue was whether or not Communist and Socialist party nominees for the presidential ticket should be permitted on the general election ballot, although not filed prior to the primary. Included with the nominations are letters and telegrams from the UnAmerican Activities Committee and others, newspaper clippings, anti-communist literature, legal opinions, and a writ of mandamus.

Absentee Voting: In the fall of 1942 the Serviceman's Voting Act allowed for World War II soldiers to register in absentia and to vote absentee. Information on absentee voting for military personnel and others appears periodically in the ensuing years.

Primary Conventions: Primary political party conventions were established in 1947. Candidates for nomination filed individually or by petition and acceptance. The party then held a nominating convention to limit party candidates for any one office on the primary ballot to two. Run-off elections were thereby eliminated. A popular primary election was held and the finalist from each party appeared on the ballot at the general election. The secretary of state documented the process, including not only names of nominees but of convention delegates.

Special elections, local elections, and correspondence: Beginning in 1954, State School Board elections were held as a separately balloted election but at the same time as the general elections. Returns regularly appear for the board members starting in that year. Other special election returns appear intermittently throughout: a capitol tax mill in 1909, an attempt to create Duchesne county in 1913 and 1914, elections for trustees of public employee retirement boards, etc.

Correspondence related to initiatives, nominations, returns, or certificates of election or appointment are filed with those categories. Miscellaneous correspondence, evident in the 1940s, include such things as general inquiries from publishing firms, pollsters, vendors of campaign memorabilia, or school children doing reports.

Local elections did not have to be recorded by the secretary of state until 1959 when a law passed stating that after all county, municipal, or school district elections, including bond and special elections, the appropriate clerk was to file, without delay, all returns with the secretary of state. Bond returns are present for municipalities, improvement districts, service areas, and counties. In 1965 filing of bond returns was specifically excluded.

After 1965, the series consists basically of statewide returns and certified lists of elected county officials. Other election materials have split into separate series resulting in the end of this series entirely by 1976.

ARRANGEMENT: Papers are arranged chronologically by year of election or appointment then by type of document, roughly in the order occurring in the election process. Groups may be further broken down by level of office. Thereafter arrangement is alphanumerical by name of county, municipality (initially by county then city) or district; or by political party, office, newspaper, etc.

RELATED RECORDS: The LAWS OF UTAH, series 83155, are a good source of information on election law and procedures. The Secretary of State's report in the PUBLIC DOCUMENTS (series 240) provide abstracts of returns. The TERRITORIAL EXECUTIVE PAPERS (series 241) and the EXECUTIVE RECORD BOOKS (series 242) kept by the secretary frequently have bonds, oaths, and certificates interfiled among other government business.

Other holdings of the Lieutenant Governor's office (formerly called the Secretary of State) should be checked as well. There are various series of appointments, registers, bonds, and oaths. Series 17170 records OATHS OF OFFICE during most of the statehood period. COMMISSION REGISTERS, series 352, records commissions of elected and appointed office holders from 1875 to 1938.

The Elections Office became a separate agency within the Lieutenant Governor's office in the 1990s and assumed many of the earlier series of petitions, candidate listings, returns, and other papers so that office's holdings should be consulted. Most notable are INITIATIVE PETITIONS, series 10824; ELECTION CYCLE RECORDS, series 21818, which includes all the candidate filings and preparations to appear on the ballot; STATE AND COUNTY ELECTION RETURNS, series 21817; MUNICIPAL ELECTION RETURNS, series 21812; and series 21815, ELECTION RESEARCH COMPILATIONS, which gives summary data for various research requests.

The Utah Commission which oversaw elections in the 1880s and 1890s has an ELECTION RETURNS REGISTER (series 396) a COMMISSION REGISTRER (series 304), MINUTE BOOKS (series 1126) and LETTERBOOKS (series 1139) which might help clarify the gap in returns after 1882.

Much of the responsibility for elections rested with the county clerks. County papers held by the Archives include some poll books, election district maps, oaths of office and bonds, appointment papers and election certificates, returns abstracts, etc. The same is true of individual municipalities.

PROCESSING NOTE: The series was turned over to the State Historical Society Archives in the 1950s. The Society did some processing, then transferred the papers to the Utah State Archives after its separation from the Historical Society in the late 1960s. The papers were sorted chronologically and by category by Alice Cone of the State Archives in 1988 and microfilmed in 1989-1991.

CONTAINER LIST

See PDF file for full container list.