Lesser narrowly trails Koford in House District 10 race as ballots continue to be processed
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From left, the candidates for the District 10 seat in the Utah House, Republican Jill Koford and Democrat Rosemary Lesser, the incumbent. Both are from Ogden.OGDEN — More than one week has passed since Election Day and, as was the case at this time two years ago, the margin between incumbent Rep. Rosemary Lesser (D-Ogden) and challenger Jill Koford (R-Ogden) in State House District 10 is razor thin as ballots continue to be processed.
At press time, Koford led Lesser by just 266 votes, after having lost in her bid to represent the district by 500 votes in 2022.
Koford declined to comment on the race until the Weber County election results are certified. Lesser, meanwhile, told the Standard-Examiner that she’s looking forward to every vote being counted.
“Considering that the difference is 266 votes out of 15,000, I think that it’s reasonable to just wait and see how the process plays out,” Lesser said. “In my mind, there’s no reason to rush proclamation one way or the other until we know what that status is.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, 7,747 votes had been recorded for Koford while 7,481 had been recorded for Lesser.
Weber County Clerk/Auditor Ricky Hatch told the Standard-Examiner on Wednesday that election workers continue to process provisional ballots, which include those from voters who registered to vote on Election Day and also ballots with uncured signatures.
“We have a total of 3,400 provisional ballots countywide … approximately 19% or about 650 belong to House District 10 and we’re processing those,” Hatch said, noting that additional workers had been brought in recently to aid in the the effort.
Hatch noted that provisional ballots are “much more likely” to belong to Republican voters, but he said that the election results probably wouldn’t be updated until Friday afternoon “at the very earliest.”
In the meantime, Lesser says that it’s incumbent on whoever prevails in the hotly-contested district to represent all of its constituents, regardless of political affiliation.
“To literally do that job involves recognizing that the people who voted for you are about half of the district, and the people who didn’t vote for you are about half the district,” Lesser said.
“When we basically just get down to the needs and opinions of individuals, I find that there is not the polarization that people think there is. So, representing a district that is around 50-50 still means that our votes should always be to look out for what’s best for the people we represent.”
Prior to Election Day, both Lesser and Koford cited the cost of living and housing affordability as key issues in District 10. They similarly espoused the importance of listening to constituents.
