CLICK HERE FOR LIVE ELECTION FIGURES AS RESULTS COME IN THIS EVENING…
Written by Michael Flynn
UPDATED at 6:17 p.m.
After our preliminary morning results that showed Democrat Dorothy Engelman with a surprising lead in her race against Lowry Snow for Utah House District 74, we focused our polling efforts on that race to see whether those figures reflected voting trends throughout the wider district.
To obtain a more diverse sample in the District 74 race, we sent pollsters out to the voting locations at the Veterans Home in Ivins and the Santa Clara City Offices and after obtaining a much larger sampling, found that Engelman did not poll nearly as well in these areas. Engelman no longer appears to be winning the District 74 race, with Lowry Snow now leading, with the apparent support of 66.28-percent of voters who responded to our questions about that race.
The RAP Tax, however, appears to be doing much better among afternoon and evening voters, with 52.63-percent of all poll respondents indicating that they voted for Proposition 3.
The county commission races are appearing to hold very close to their morning figures. Republican Zachary Renstrom appears to have the support of 66.67-percent of voters in his race against Democrat Chris White, while Democratic candidate Paul Van Dam remains well behind GOP candidate Victor Iverson, who garnered the support of 66.44-percent of poll respondents.
We did not conduct further polling in the Utah House Districts 62 and 75, where Republican candidates held massive leads this morning, instead opting to focus polling efforts on the apparently more closely contested District 74 race.
Of the 152 people who ultimately responded to our exit poll, 92 were Republicans, 25 were Democrats, and 35 said they were neither. Eighty-five respondents were men, and 67 were women.
Original report, posted at 1:00 p.m.
Preliminary results of a voluntary exit poll conducted by The Independent today at three separate polling locations in St. George is showing surprisingly strong support for Democrat Dorothy Engelman, who is running for the Utah House District 74, which encompasses much of south-west St. George, as well as Ivins and Santa Clara.
The data was collected between 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. at the Washington County Administration building, which serves two precincts in Utah House District 75, at the St. George Parks Building on 3050 East, which serves three precincts in Utah House District 62, and at Tonaquint Intermediate School, which serve three precincts in Utah House District 74. Sixty-six voters participated in the polling at the time these figures were compiled.
While Republicans appear to be winning by large numbers across Washington County, one Democrat, Dorothy Engelman, appears to be leading Republican Lowry Snow among Utah House District 74 voters who participated in our exit poll. According to our data, Engelman may actually be winning that race, with 57.15-percent of poll respondents saying that they voted for her, as opposed to Snow, with only 42.86-percent. Unlike the other two local Democrats in Utah House races, Engelman seems to be pulling in a significant number of non-Democrat votes, with 19.04-percent of her support coming from people who identified themselves as members of the Republican Party.
Proposition 3, more popularly known as the RAP tax, did not show strong support among early-morning voters, with 59.92-percent of respondents reporting that they voted against the tax.
Republicans Zachary Renstrom and Victor Iverson appear to be well ahead of their Democratic opponents Chris White and Paul Van Dam, respectively. Renstrom found support among 68.25-percent of respondents, while Iverson has garnered 71.88-percent.
The other Utah House Districts show Republicans firmly in the lead, including District 75’s three-way race between Republican Don Ipson, Democrat Cheryl Hawker, and Nihla Judd from the Independent American Party. Ipson is pulling well ahead of the other candidates in our poll with 52.94-percent support, compared to Hawker’s 11.76-percent and Judd’s 35.29-percent, a surprising strong showing for a third-party candidate.
The Independent will be collecting more data on the election this afternoon and evening. Please check back for updated figures.
Deanna Garrett, Adrianne Flynn, Katie Madsen, Josh Warburton, Erin Zeltner & Marianne Mansfield contributed to this report
CLICK HERE FOR LIVE ELECTION FIGURES AS RESULTS COME IN THIS EVENING…
