By james art 
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Because election security is among the primary interests of voters, Utah officials emphasize strong measures to ensure that every vote is counted with signature verification.
KUTV got an inside look at the Utah County election process to see how this protection works in real time.
Inside the Utah County Election Center, election staff were busy checking and processing ballots Monday.
MORE: More than 300,000 ballots cast in Salt Lake County ahead of Election Day
Chris Swensen, director of elections, shared the process with 2News and explained that most Utahns vote by mail and that ballots are verified using a high-tech system called the Agilis machine.
“The machine takes an image of the front and back of the envelope and compares it to the signature we have on file,” he said.
The machine is the first line of defense – if it detects a blank or mismatched signature, the ballot is flagged for further review by trained election workers.
Swensen said, “We have up to five signatures on file per voter. If we find a match, we mark it as confirmed and ready to process. If there is still a question, a treatment letter is sent to the voter.
Meanwhile, early in-person voters have cast ballots throughout Utah County, where their identities are verified with IDs.
Cheri Botkin, who voted earlier in Provo, appreciated the speedy process.
She said: “We were in and out in about 30 minutes total.”
This year, she chose to vote in person to show her children the importance of voting.
“This election is huge,” she said. “I want my kids to understand the pride of voting in person.”
As a reminder, unless your vote-by-mail ballot is postmarked with Monday’s date, it will not be counted unless you vote in person or deliver it in a drop box.
Polls open statewide on Tuesday morning for Election Day.
___