Cast Vote Records (CVRs)

A Cast Vote Record (CVR) is an electronic record of a voter’s selections on a ballot. CVRs are always anonymized and de-identified to protect each voter’s right to a secret ballot. CVRs are useful for research and to audit the accuracy of ballot tabulator machines.

Aaron Davidson worked hard to change state law to make Cast Vote Records public. In 2025, thanks to his work with Rep. Norm Thurston, HB 1004 was enacted into law, thus making CVRs publicly available in Utah. Here is a link to Utah County's CVR for the 2025 Municipal General Election.

Alpine School District Split

The County Clerk plays an important administrative role in school district splits. When cities throughout northern Utah County proposed splitting off from the Alpine School District, they faced many potential legal challenges. Aaron Davidson worked with those cities to ensure that all statutory requirements and deadlines were met. He made himself readily available to city leaders to ensure that nothing was missed so that the voters could weigh in on the important issue of the Alpine School District’s future.

Catching Fraudsters

Aaron Davidson is committed to rooting out election fraud. Criminal referrals have been made to prosecutors when someone fraudulently votes on behalf of another by-mail voter. Additionally, Aaron has turned over several fraudulent signature gatherers for prosecution. While other election officials choose to downplay these occurrences, Aaron believes that finding and exposing election fraud is one of his top duties as the Utah County Clerk.

Citizenship Verification

Aaron Davidson is the first county clerk in Utah to partner with the federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to use their Systematic Alien Verification and Entitlements (SAVE) program to verify citizenship – a crucial component of voter eligibility – of foreign-born voters. As of March 2026, the Utah County Clerk’s Office is the only county in Utah with an account with USCIS's SAVE program to check the citizenship status of those registered voters born outside of the United States for whom the State of Utah has no naturalization data on file.

Drop Box Usage

Voting by mail comes with inherent risks. Some voters don’t receive a ballot and other voters return their ballot through the mail, but the USPS does not guarantee to deliver ballots to the County Elections Division on time. To minimize these risks, Aaron Davidson has encouraged greater use of drop boxes. Every municipality in Utah County has at least one drop box, and the drop boxes are checked frequently to ensure quick ballot processing. Through these efforts, the drop box usage has increased from 62% to 87% of ballots returned through the drop boxes.

Fiscal Responsibility

Here are some of the ways in which Aaron Davidson has reduced costs to taxpayers since taking office:

- Removing unnecessary full-time positions from the Clerk’s Office Staffing Plan.

- Reducing postage costs by encouraging and incentivizing voters to use ballot drop boxes.

- Reducing mailing costs by sending emails when permitted by law rather than postcards or letters. The Elections Division sends lots of communications to voters, and this emphasis on using emails has greatly reduced costs.

- Seeking out grant funding to pay for equipment and security upgrades.

- Committing to not taking a “use it or lose it” approach to the budget appropriated to the Clerk’s Office. Davidson is committed to only spending the minimum amount necessary to keep the department running efficiently and effectively, and all excess appropriations are returned to the general fund at the end of each fiscal year.

- Capturing the “fully burdened costs” of running municipal elections.

Signature Verification

Aaron Davidson has established strong signature verification training requirements for employees. Before an employee may begin verifying signatures on ballot envelopes, candidate packets, initiatives, or referenda, employees must take and pass a state training program. Davidson requires frequent retraining beyond the state’s minimal requirements. This commitment to accuracy resulted in Utah County coming the closest to the statewide average signature rejection rate in the 2025 statewide referendum on HB 267. Davidson is neither too stringent nor too lenient when verifying signatures; he is right in the middle.

National Recognitions

Aaron Davidson’s office has received two national recognitions during his time as Utah County Clerk:

- 2024 Government Experience Project Award from the Center for Digital Government for innovative online marriage licensing system.

- 2023 Honorable Mention Clearinghouse Award from the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) for creating an enhanced voting instruction guide for voters.

Ranked Choice Voting

Aaron Davidson has worked tirelessly to eliminate Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) in Utah elections. He fought diligently to ensure that no municipalities utilized RCV in the 2025 Utah County municipal elections. He spoke often with legislators about the problems with RCV, including the difficulty in auditing RCV elections, the confusion that many voters experienced when deciphering an RCV ballot, and the acknowledged discrepancies that exist in RCV tabulation software. Thanks to these efforts, the RCV pilot program was not renewed by the state legislature.

SAVE Act

Aaron Davidson appears to be the only county clerk in Utah who has come out in favor of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act.

The SAVE Act is a federal bill that aims to require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for voter registration in federal elections and requiring photo ID when voting. It was passed in the U.S. House of Representatives, but the U.S. Senate has refused to vote on it. The SAVE Act would require proof of documentation in order to clean our voter rolls. However, the SAVE Act also gives election officials the to authority to use the Systematic Alien Verification and Entitlements (SAVE) program to verify citizenship status without having to ask the voter for additional information, unless the status is not verified. While the Lt. Governor has criticized the SAVE Act, calling it “problematic and impractical on almost all points,” Davidson agrees with Utah’s federal House delegation that this important legislation would be a major improvement towards greater election integrity. 

NOTE: The SAVE Act and the SAVE program are separate items. The SAVE Act is a legislative bill and the SAVE program is a citizenship verification program run by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Same acronym, different functions. Though the passage of the SAVE Act would give election officials the authority to use the SAVE program to verify citizenship status of voters without having to ask for additional documentation from the voter.

Secretary of State

Aaron Davidson appears to be the only county clerk in Utah who has called for the creation of an independently elected Secretary of State to oversee Utah’s elections. Creating such a position would ensure we no longer have a conflict of interest where the most powerful politician in the state – the governor – oversees his own election via his lieutenant governor.

Voice of the People

Unfortunately, many important election administration decisions get made at conferences or in meetings that don’t involve the public. Aaron Davidson always speaks up on these meetings to promote greater transparency and integrity in our elections systems. He isn’t afraid to stand alone in these meetings, which he often does, because he will never give up his commitment to representing your voice at every turn.