Hildale Election Results: Non-Polygamous Sect Members Leading

HILDALE, UT — Hildale is about to take a major step in shedding the city's polygamous past, with non-sect candidates in four races — including mayor — leading in Washington County's unofficial election results.Four candidates who aren't members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or FLDS, were beating candidates affiliated with the group, an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism.

The results won't become official until a canvass next week.Utah is an all-mail election state.

Nearly 170 votes were counted and posted Tuesday night from a pool of 367 registered voters. It's unknown how many outstanding votes are left to be counted.

In the race for mayor, Donia Jessop leads incumbent Philip Barlow by 25 votes with about 58 percent of the votes.

Jessop is vying to become the first female mayor and first non-sect member to hold the position. She is a former member of the religious group who left four years ago over unrest about how imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs was running the group. She returned to Hildale to buy an evicted member's home and start a business.

Jessop said Wednesday that she's feeling good about the results and celebrated a bit Tuesday night with about 120 supporters who came to her house for an election party. But, she said her lead is small enough that she'll wait until the canvass before she declares victory and has a big celebration.

"I want to make sure every T is crossed and I is dotted before I count my chickens," Jessop said.

Barlow, who is looking to win a second term, said he's not officially conceding but acknowledged the "handwriting is on the wall."

He said he doesn't plan to challenge the results because he has confidence in county officials who are running the election. He repeated what he said before the election in saying that he'll respect the will of the voters.

"It's a lot bigger than me. I'm willing to roll with it," said Barlow. "I'm totally ready to do whatever the voters choose. I've got plenty of other things to do."

The competitive elections are unusual because elections in Hildale have long been decided behind the scenes by the FLDS choosing men to run unopposed. This year, though, Jessop and other non-sect members organized and held a quasi-party convention to choose candidates.

Government evictions over unpaid occupancy fees on houses that belong to a trust have forced hundreds of FLDS to leave town. People with past ties to the group have been buying the homes and moving as the electorate changes substantially.

The town government in Hildale and the sister town of Colorado City, Arizona, and the police are being watched closely by court-appointed monitors after a jury found them guilty of civil rights violations. And a food-stamp fraud case led 10 people to plead guilty and exacerbated a leadership void in the FLDS.

FLDS members believe the town they built is being destroyed by what they call cultural cleansing. Members of the FLDS believe the evictions were accelerated this year to clean out voter rolls and rig the elections to usher in the outside candidates.

In the races for two council seats that will be four-year terms, Jared Nicol, a mainstream Mormon, and Maha Layton, a former FLDS member, are out to big leads over sect members Edwin Barlow and Carlos Jessop.

In a council race to fill the final two years for a member who quit, non-FLDS member JVar Dutson has a wide lead over Elmer Johnson.

By BRADY McCOMBS, Associated Press

Photo credit: Rick Bowmer/Associated Press