Mosier v. Gilmore

OAKS, Justice:

In this appeal, we must decide who was elected sheriff of Garfield County on November 4, 1980. The outcome turns on the significance of 24 ballots that were marked for both candidates. All statutory references are to Utah Code Annotated, 1953, as amended.

Candidate Gilmore defeated incumbent Mosier in the Republican primary, and his name was the only one printed on the November ballot for the office of sheriff (for the remaining two years of the four-year term). (There was no candidate representing any other party.) Mosier ran a write-in campaign, which included the circulation…