Martin leads Longacre 60-40 for Draper-area state school board seat, with the count still running

DRAPER — Democrat James Martin led Republican Erin Longacre 60.3% to 39.7% in the Utah State Board of Education District 7 race in the first release of unofficial returns from Salt Lake County, published at 9:05 p.m. Tuesday, according to the count the Draper Herald reported from the county's results 1. That release put Martin at 29,548 votes and Longacre at 19,442 1.

Those numbers are not the end of the count. Salt Lake County Clerk Lannie Chapman said Wednesday that more than 100,000 ballots dropped off on Election Day were still being verified, and that officials hoped to release additional totals Thursday evening with another update Friday 2. She said a new state law requiring workers to check the last four digits of a voter's Social Security number or Utah ID raised processing time from about two to three seconds per ballot to roughly 12 seconds 2.

The county publishes results at electionresults.utah.gov and states on its own elections page that results are not official until the Board of Canvassers certifies them, which it says typically happens 14 days after Election Day 3.

The seat itself covers this corner of the county. The state's certified candidate list describes District 7 as "a portion of Salt Lake County" and states that the member elected from it "will serve for a two-year term to fill the remainder of an unexpired term" 4. The Salt Lake Tribune, which surveyed both candidates before the election, listed the district as Sandy, Draper, Cottonwood Heights and Alta 5.

The board the winner joins is a constitutional body with general control and supervision over public education in Utah: it sets the state's core standards, educator licensing policy and high school graduation requirements, and it distributes more than $4 billion to district and charter schools, according to the board's own description of its role 6. Its 15 members are elected from geographic areas to four-year terms 6. The District 7 seat on this ballot carries the shorter term because it fills out a seat that changed hands mid-term 4.

That change came in 2025. Molly Hart left the seat in June when she became state superintendent, and Gov. Spencer Cox appointed Longacre on July 29, 2025, the Tribune reported 7. Hart had won a second term in 2024 with 52% of the vote against Democrat John Arthur 7.

The two candidates came to the race from different parts of the school system. Longacre, a Republican, worked as a substitute teacher for six years and served on a PTA before her appointment 5. Martin, a first-time candidate, describes a 28-year career running from kindergarten teacher to principal to union representative to a specialist at the state board, according to the Tribune's survey 5.

Their answers to that survey put the differences on the record. Martin said he does not support "the use of public funds for private interests" and argued that board members who advocate otherwise "violate their oath to serve public education in the state"; Longacre wrote that she is "a big proponent of school choice" and that she wants tax dollars "used correctly and with accountability" 5. On the state's sensitive materials law, Longacre said she was grateful for the review process the code sets out, while Martin said three districts should not decide which books are available in every local education agency in the state 5. They agreed on two questions: both said yes to Utah's bell-to-bell cellphone bans in schools, and both said no to holding back struggling third-grade readers 5.

The result is part of a wider shift on the board. The Tribune reported that early returns showed three of the board's 15 seats may move to Democrats, which would give the party five seats on a body where Republicans hold a supermajority 8.