Orem, Utah — November 2nd, 2026
With the 2026 midterms in action, Utah County Clerk Aaron Davidson is urging UVU students to update their signatures after thousands of young voters’ ballots went uncounted in the 2024 general election. In an interview with UVU Review reporter Ali Juarez, Davidson said that voters within ages 18-25 represented 48.9% of all rejected ballots in Utah County due to missing or mismatched signatures. Along with this, roughly one in seven ballots cast by voters within the ages 18-21 were initially challenged.
Davidson highlighted another issue with counting ballots cast by young voters, which is curing them once they are initially rejected. Curing is the process of correcting a problem with a submitted ballot; usually a missing or mismatched signature. When this occurs, the Utah County Clerk’s Elections Division attempts to reach out to the voter to correct the mistake. However, Davidson explains that young voters are particularly difficult to reach: “The problem is that age bracket. They don’t like dealing with adults as much. And so if they see a phone call coming from someone they don’t recognize, they won’t pick it up. They don’t deal with letters that much because everything is electronic now. And then emails are kind of an antiquated way for people to communicate with. And in your generation, they communicate more with text and other platforms. And so even email, they don’t react as much. And so getting them to cure their ballot has been very difficult.”
Davidson recommends that young voters update their signatures on file if it has changed. He says, “for first-time voters, the best signature we have is your driver license when you were 16. And now you’re a college student and your signature has changed a lot.” To update your voter signature in Utah County, simply submit the Signature Update Request Form at vote.utahcounty.gov, especially if you know your signature has changed.
If your ballot is rejected, Davidson says “we’ve tried to make it as simple as possible to do it, but it’s something that you have to respond to. It just doesn’t automatically happen”. To make the process more accessible, Utah County offers an electronic, mobile-friendly form that voters can complete to make sure their ballot is counted after being initially rejected. “We don’t want to reject your ballots. It breaks my heart when I’m looking at that because, when I do the signature verification, I see that the only signature we have is your driver license record, and I’m comparing it to now. And I know it’s probably you, but I have to keep to the standard that’s in the code, and it’s just not significantly different—or significantly similar. And we have to reject that and go through the cure process. Get us your updated signature for now.”
Watch the interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzwrPEbD32M
Register to vote at vote.utah.gov
Update your voter signature at vote.utahcounty.gov
