Bradfield provides update on new county election center

Cache County's new Election Ballot- Processing Center. Photo courtesy Jess Bradfield.

LOGAN — On KVNU’s For the People program on Thursday, Cache County Clerk & Auditor Jess Bradfield talked more about the new ballot processing center which helped the county receive official recognition from the U.S. Election Assistance Commission for using grant money to create the new center which can be found at the Logan/Cache Airport.

The county will be processing the upcoming Logan municipal council elections and on KVNU’s recent Speak to the Mayor program, the center received praise from Logan Mayor Holly Daines and city recorder Teresa Harris.

“She was obviously the mayor when I was on the city council, and we would butt heads every once in a while. You know what – we found our common area that we both agree on, and that’s fair elections and secure elections.

“And it was so nice to have Logan be one of the municipalities contracting and throw their faith at us, and say ‘Hey, we can see that you’ve built an election center that we trust,’” Bradfield said.

He said that wasn’t always the case but he’s pleased that this year every local city will go with Cache County when it comes to elections.

Since Bradfield went part-time as county clerk, salary money has been put into creating the center.

“People are going to say ‘Oh great, you put in carpet,’ but they have no idea. When I had gone part-time I said I’m going to use my salary as a means to ensure that everything is complete by the time I leave,” Bradfield explained. “So what we did is we actually leveraged my salary that I would have been paid as the clerk, and of course, I’m still working, and it feels like I’ve been working full-time.

“But I only get paid a part-time salary based on the hours I worked, and we took the rest of that money and plowed it back into the county for the benefit of the residents.”

Bradfield said the new center also aids in government transparency.

He said when they go to national conferences people are surprised that they were able to do this, saying they have counties with several million residents and this is what they aspire to do.

He said it’s amazing that in three years, Cache County has been able to get to that level.

As Bradfield transitions to a full-time human resources job in the private sector, he said local government will always have a place in his heart, so he’ll see what the future brings.

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2 Comments

  • Airport is no place to count ballots May 28, 2023 at 7:23 pm Reply

    “We’ve built an election center we trust” but the question is, do the citizens of Logan and Cache County trust you? Building an election center at the airport is shady business. The location poses a few questions such as: how will we know that ballots are not going to be flown in if more are needed for certain political candidates to be installed, or when more support is needed to pass controversial propositions that are being voted on? Considering the recent audits that were completed on the Cache County District Attorney’s Office and the misconduct/criminal behavior that was exposed, combined with the increasing acts taken by the city and county councils against overwhelming voter feedback/public criticism, this location doesn’t show “transparency,” in fact it shows the opposite. It shows that the local government has reason to hide their actions. Because the Cache Valley Airport is regulated by and under the jurisdiction of the Federal Aviation Administration, any election worker, or politician who might not want citizens to observe their votes being tabulated would be subject to federal penalties if they were told to leave. To tabulate local/municipal ballots on “federal government property” under the jurisdiction of the FAA is highly suspect and could be unconstitutional in nature.

    • Pete June 1, 2023 at 3:20 pm Reply

      Hahaha stay in school everybody!

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