Highland school bond measure faces petition challenging referendum’s outcome

AINSWORTH — A group of petitioners has submitted paperwork challenging the outcome of a $15 million bond measure in the Highland school district, after county officials said an unknown number of voters at one polling place were given the wrong ballots on Election Day.

The move could force a do-over of the election and jeopardize the success of the bond measure, which passed with 61 percent approval. According to unofficial election results released Nov. 6, the measure won just 21 ballots more than it needed to reach the 60 percent threshold for passage, a slim margin of victory in 2,133 votes cast on the measure Nov. 5.

School district resident Ron Greiner said he submitted a petition to the county auditor’s office last week with 29 signatures, a few more than required by state law. County officials confirmed they’d received the paperwork, but said the complainant still needed to pay a $3,000 bond to formally file the challenge. If that’s paid, the matter will go before a court where a judge could uphold or invalidate the election’s outcome, returning the money to Greiner if the decision falls in his favor.

“I just want a fair deal. If it passes, it passes,” said Greiner. “They thought they could squeeze it by without anybody noticing, and I’m trying to be nice about it, but it needs a new election, because it wasn’t done properly.”

Before supervisors first canvassed the votes Nov. 13, County Attorney Nathan Repp said the county didn’t have standing to unilaterally nullify the election’s outcome, despite its poll workers handing out at least one incorrect ballot.

In a follow-up interview on Tuesday, he said the county was a neutral party in the dispute, and that its only role was to count the votes as collected and provide a clerk of court if the challenge comes before a judge.

“The only connection the county itself has to this case is the commissioner of this election happens to be the county auditor,” Repp said. “It would be a different circumstance if the county were the taxing authority on this particular bond measure, but it’s not. Nothing about this bond measure has any direct connection to the county, it’s to the school district and those within the district.”

It’s not clear whether the issue at the Ainsworth precinct affected the bond vote’s outcome.

Staff at the county auditor’s office said they couldn’t determine how many improper ballots poll workers handed out, so it’s impossible to know how many voters in the school district were denied a chance to vote on the measure, or conversely, how many from outside the district were allowed to vote in an election that wouldn’t affect their taxes.

Still, County Supervisor Marcus Fedler — whose constituents include residents of Ainsworth and most of the school district — voted against certifying the election after canvassing the results, in protest of the polling place mishap. He also signed Greiner’s petition, according to a copy of the document shared with The Southeast Iowa Union.

“It only passed by (22) votes, so it wasn’t like it was a resounding win,” Fedler said. “I kind of made an issue out of it early on and said to (County Auditor Dan Widmer,) ‘We should redo this,’ and when we were canvassing the vote, the county attorney said, ‘No, we don’t have to,’ and the rest of them kind of went along with it.”

If the bond measure passes, it would authorize the Highland school district to take on $15 million of debt to pay for a new multipurpose facility, secure entrances at the elementary building, and an upgrade to the commons area at the high school, among other projects. It would be paid off over 20 years, and not change the district’s current $2.70 debt service levy set by the last bond vote in 2019.

Highland Superintendent Ken Crawford said the school hadn’t heard of any official challenge yet from county officials, but would stay involved in upcoming proceedings.

“The Highland School District will continue to proceed with the election results until any legal process is concluded,” he wrote in an email. “We will cooperate as needed to see a positive conclusion to this election.”

County officials have previously clarified that the conundrum with Highland’s bond measure won’t affect any other race’s outcome even if it’s invalidated, since the improper and proper ballots were identical aside from the bond question.

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com