Iowa’s election recount process would see major changes under a bill that is on its way to the governor’s desk.
This comes after lawmakers and election officials have been trying to revamp the recount process for several years because of concerns that it has allowed counties to use different methods to recount ballots, and has caused delays when candidates couldn’t agree on recount board members.
Republicans in the Iowa Senate passed the bill Monday with a 31-14 vote.
“Fair elections are the absolute bedrock of our system of government,” Sen. Ken Rozenboom, R-Pella, said. “This legislation will correct flaws in our current system.”
Under current law, the two candidates facing a recount each choose a person to serve on the three-person recount board, and then they choose a third member together. When they can’t agree, a judge appoints the third member.
The bill would require county auditors and their staff to conduct recounts.
The bill would instead require county auditors and their staff to conduct recounts. The county auditor would have to assign an equal number of Republicans and Democrats to serve on the recount board. The candidates would each be able to select up to five people to observe the recount.
Democrats opposed the bill.
Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, said she has been through two recounts, and she felt that choosing a recount board member gave her a trusted voice in the process. She said the requirement for party balance doesn’t necessarily mean each candidate’s best interests are represented.
“What we will have if we shift to this new model is candidates feeling very suspicious, very uncertain, and not knowing if they can trust what they’re hearing,” Trone Garriott said.
Sen. Cindy Winkler, D-Davenport, said she was concerned that voters wouldn’t trust the process if a county auditor was in charge of recounting their own election.
“The fact that there could be a conflict of interest in that staffing of the auditor’s office — in the case that it is an auditor [race] that is being recounted — I think creates a conflict, a flaw in the process,” she said.
Rozenboom said taking political campaigns out of the recount process will ensure they can’t manipulate the process, strengthening Iowans’ trust in the outcome of close elections. He also said county auditors run Iowa’s elections.
“So if we trust them to conduct the election in the first place, it seems reasonable to me that we would trust them to conduct a recount,” Rozenboom said. “And to the point about leaving the candidates out of the recount process, I’ll simply say this: there’s no one more partisan than them to participate in this process.”
What other changes does the bill make to the recount process?
The bill makes several other changes to the recount process, including establishing a threshold for when recounts can be requested.
For statewide and federal offices, the difference between votes cast for the recount requester and the apparent winner must be less than 0.15%. For all other elections — like state legislature and local government races — the difference would have to be less than 1% or 50 votes.
Recounts would have to be done with vote-counting machines that are used on Election Day, but the secretary of state could order a hand count due to “extraordinary circumstances.” All ballots cast for the office in question would have to be recounted.
Recount boards would be required to comply with all guidance issued by the secretary of state, who could take over a recount if he or she believes the board is not following the law.
The bill is different from recount changes proposed by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, but he said Friday during a taping of Iowa Press on Iowa PBS that the bill that passed is “very good” and addresses his main concerns. He said recounts should look the same in all counties, which is especially important for races that cross county lines.
“We’re a bit polarized in elections,” Pate said. “We’ve got some that are really, really close, and this keeps happening over and over and over. So, I don’t think it’s going away. So, we really want to make sure the recount thing is under control.”
The changes would take effect July 1 with Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signature.
