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Despite 2020 issues, Iowa’s election recount laws unchanged going into 2024 election
Iowa Legislature declined to update law to fix recount problems
Apr. 25, 2024 6:43 pm, Updated: Apr. 29, 2024 7:01 pm
One in an occasional series of articles about issues that are likely to return for debate in next year's session of the Iowa Legislature.
DES MOINES — Iowa’s recount procedures will be the same for this fall’s presidential election as they were four years ago, when inconsistencies across counties caused consternation in the recount of an historically close congressional election.
The Iowa Legislature concluded its regular work April 20 without addressing most of the concerns raised by local and state elections officials regarding the patchwork of laws and rules for how counties should conduct election recounts.
“We’re four years down the road and an obvious situation, which called for corrective legislation, has not happened four years later,” said Linn County Auditor Joel Miller.
“And we’re facing another election where we may again have close races. And I can imagine a new close race happening between Miller-Meeks and (2024 Democratic candidate Christina) Bohannan,” Miller said. “So, you know, history may repeat itself.”
In the 2020 elections, Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks edged Democrat Rita Hart by just six votes out of nearly 200,000 cast in the former 2nd Congressional District.
During the recount of those results, because Iowa law provides broad discretion to recount boards to decide the mechanics, some counties did complete hand recounts, some did complete machine recounts, and some, including Johnson and Scott counties, did a hybrid version.
Ever since, county auditors — the local, elected officials who oversee the operations of elections — along with their state association, the Iowa State Association of County Auditors, and Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, the top statewide elections official, have implored state lawmakers to provide more consistency in county recount procedures.
The proposals
At least two bills were introduced over the past two years to address county recount procedures, but neither advanced beyond the early stages of the lawmaking process.
“Obviously, I would liked to have seen it passed,” said Pate, who introduced legislation from his office. That bill was never given an initial legislative hearing in the Iowa Legislature. “I thought we worked it very effectively: we’ve worked with county auditors (and) we’ve worked with legislators in several cycles now, on trying to identify the practices.”
Among the proposals in Pate’s bill, House Study Bill 627:
- County recount boards would have been different sizes based on the population or number of votes cast in a county. Currently, all recount boards have three members.
- When a candidate requests a recount in a county, all precincts within that county would be required to conduct a recount.
- A recount board would be required to start its work no later than six days after the canvass.
A different bill dealing with county recount procedures, which took a similar approach as Pate’s bill, was introduced in 2023 by Iowa Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton. That bill was approved by a House subcommittee and committee … but that was it.
Among the proposals in that 2023 Kaufmann bill, House File 356:
- The deadline to request a recount would have been moved from the third day following the canvass of election results to two days after the canvass, and a recount board would have been required to convene within six days of the canvass.
- Recounts would have been required to be completed within 17 days of the canvass for a presidential election, within 21 days of the election for Congress or state office, and within 13 days of any other election.
- A recount request would have been required to include all precincts in a county, the request would have been required to state whether a machine recount is requested or a machine and hand recount, and any request for a hand recount would have been required to include all counties in a district.
- More populous counties would be able to add more workers to its recount board. Under current law, each county — regardless of its size — can have only three recount board members.
‘Disappointed’
Becky Bissell, the Adams County auditor and president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors, said the group was supportive of Pate’s bill. Officially, the organization did not register as a lobbyist on Pate’s 2024 bill and was registered as undecided on Kaufmann’s 2023 bill.
Without any updates to state recount laws, elections officials said they are concerned that this fall’s election could produce another close decision and another multicounty recount that could once again lay bare those inconsistencies.
“We were definitely disappointed, because in the end we just want to see more consistency and a little bit better clarification on the rules so that we don't have any discrepancies and people don't have any doubt in the process,” Bissell said.
Pate and county auditors said they are not sure why both bills failed to advance. The Gazette was unable Thursday to contact the state lawmakers who lead the committees that deal with state elections laws.
Kaufmann in 2023 said his bill was an attempt to accomplish the goals set out by the local elections officials.
“The one thing I heard from Democrats, Republicans, auditors, people that sit on recount boards, is we need uniformity,” Kaufmann said last year. “We need predictability. We need to know exactly what we’re all getting into: no ambiguity, no gray area. … That was my motivation, was to create a uniform set of rules that everybody knows what the game is, everybody knows how to play it, everybody knows what the rules are.”
What passed
State lawmakers did pass legislation that requires a county recount board to include in its report to the state a full accounting of the recounted ballots and, if necessary, requires the board to meet a second time if an initial recount was deemed incorrect.
That provision addresses a recent recount in Scott County, where a state legislative race was decided by 11 votes — but only after multiple recounts showed varying numbers of absentee ballots counted.
Pate said his top priority was addressed in House File 2466, which passed the Legislature and is awaiting Gov. Kim Reynolds’ signature to become law.
“That was very important. That was the biggest piece I wanted to get done,” Pate said. “Bottom line means the recounts (have) got to balance, has to be accurate. You don't get to just go home. …
“We wanted to make sure that one was cleared up real quickly because that goes against the grain of everything I stand for. When we total up at the end of an election, the numbers need to balance so people have the assurances that their vote was counted.”
Kerri Tompkins, the Scott County auditor, said her office will continue to work with the county attorney and Pate’s office to follow state law in any future recounts.
Iowa’s 2024 primary election is June 4, and the general election is Nov. 5.
Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com
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