Election margins of only 1% or less in Iowa could be recounted under proposal

DES MOINES — Only elections decided by 1 percent or less would be eligible for recounts in Iowa, and only local elections officials and their staff would conduct the recounts under legislation advanced this week by state lawmakers.

The proposal comes from Rep. Austin Harris, a Republican from Moulton, and differs greatly from a recount reform proposed earlier this legislative session by Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, the state’s top elections official and also a Republican.

Pate and lawmakers have sought updates to Iowa’s election recount laws since 2020, when a protracted recount in an Eastern Iowa congressional election revealed a patchwork of procedures across counties.

Harris’ bill, which took its first legislative step this week at the Iowa Capitol, differs from Pate’s proposal in two significant ways:

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It would limit recount requests to only those elections decided by 1 percent of the vote or less, and would require the candidate who requests a recount to pay for that recount unless the election margin was 0.1 percent or less.

There is no current cap on an election margin before a recount can be requested. Under current law, the state pays for a recount when the margin is fewer than 50 votes or less than 1 percent. The candidate requesting the recount otherwise is responsible for posting a bond, but the bond is returned if the winner changes.

Harris’ bill also would change the composition of election recount boards, which conduct recounts, by staffing them with local elections officials: the county auditor and the auditor’s staff.

Currently, recount boards are comprised of one representative from each of the candidates’ campaigns plus a third person agreed to by the two campaigns.

“Here in Iowa, I think we’ve seen over the last four years a manipulation of the current process in place,” Harris said Thursday during a subcommittee hearing on the bill. “And we want to ensure, no matter whether you’re Republican or Democrat, if we’re having a recounting of the results that there is no shenanigans taking place.”

Harris and his fellow Republican on the three-member subcommittee, Rep. Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton, approved of advancing Harris’ bill, making House File 596 eligible for consideration by the House State Government Committee. The third member, Rep. Adam Zabner, a Democrat from Iowa City, declined to support the bill.

Zabner shared concerns raised during the subcommittee hearing by Adam Wedmore, the Cerro Gordo County auditor and president of the Iowa State Association of County Auditors, that placing county auditors — who are elected in partisan elections — in charge of making decisions during recounts that could impact an election’s outcome.

Eric Gookin, chief operating officer for the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office, said during the hearing that the office does not see any issues with being able to implement any of the provisions in Harris’ bill.

The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office is officially registered as undecided on Harris’ bill, according to state lobbying records. So, too, are all other organizations registered on the bill, including organizations representing county auditors, counties and voters’ rights.

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Pate’s bill, Senate Study Bill 1176, was introduced in the Senate and is scheduled for a subcommittee hearing next week, just ahead of a key legislative deadline for bills to be passed out of committee.

Pate’s proposal, which he discussed with reporters before the legislative session, would require all counties to conduct their election results canvass on the same day, clarify that all recounts must be districtwide within the county and allow for larger recount boards in the state’s more populous counties.

Pate’s proposal increases the sizes of recount boards in counties with larger populations but maintains the makeup of campaign representatives and individuals approved by both campaigns. Auditors from high-population counties have expressed a desire for larger recount boards to more effectively recount ballots.

Pate’s bill also streamlines the timeline for recounts, including by establishing when a county or the state must order a recount, when a recount board convenes and by when the recount board must file its report. Pate’s bill also requires all ballots to be recounted by the same method, either by automatic tabulation or by hand.

Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks has won three elections, and two of them included a recount. In 2020, she won by just six votes out of more than 400,000 cast. In 2024, Miller-Meeks won by 799 votes.

Miller-Meeks and other Republicans were critical of her Democratic opponent, Christina Bohannan, for requesting the 2024 recount, saying the 802-vote margin from the unofficial results was too large for a recount to realistically change.

Comments: (515) 355-1300, erin.murphy@thegazette.com

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