It’s official — Iowa November election totals finalized

DES MOINES — State officials of Friday certified the results in three state House races that underwent recounts after the November election.

The Iowa Board of Canvass certified the results in House districts 59, 73, and 81, in Cerro Gordo, Linn and Scott counties, respectively.

“This is it, folks,” Secretary of State Paul Pate said during the meeting. “After this, we’ll officially wrap up the 2022 election.”

The canvassing board consists of Pate, Gov. Kim Reynolds, State Auditor Rob Sand, State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. The board certified the rest of Iowa’s election results Dec. 1.

House District 81 in Scott County was the only district where the result of the recount changed.

In the election night unofficial results, Republican Luana Stoltenberg led by 27 votes. But an administrative recount, ordered when missing ballots were identified, gave Democrat Craig Cooper a six-vote lead.

After Stoltenberg requested another recount, a three-member board certified the hand recount that gave Stoltenberg the final 11-vote lead.

Ken Croken, a Democratic Scott County supervisor, requested that Pate’s office conduct an investigation of the counting procedures in the Scott County Auditor’s Office.

“I have no doubt that the recount board acted with integrity and respect for their role, but they can only count the ballots that were presented to them,” he said in an email to Pate.

Kevin Hall, a spokesperson for Pate, said in an email the office sent a letter of inquiry to Scott County Auditor Kerri Tompkins that contains “several questions regarding the Nov. 8 general election and the counting of absentee ballots in the House District 81 race.”

“We are reviewing the situation and our investigation is ongoing,” Hall said.

In Linn County’s House District 73, Democrat Elizabeth Wilson stayed in the lead with 300 votes over Republican Susie Weinacht. That marked a five-vote swing from the initial, unofficial results.

In House District 59 in Cerro Gordo County, incumbent Democrat Sharon Steckman will keep her seat after the recount resulted in a one-vote gain for her, pushing her lead to 740 votes over Republican Doug Campbell.

The 2022 election was the second-highest turnout for a midterm election in Iowa history, surpassed only by the 2018 election.

The recounts did not change the official turnout, Hall said. His office reported Dec. 1 that 1,230,416 votes were cast, a turnout of 55 percent of Iowa’s registered voters.

“We were very pleased to see the high voter turnout and the involvement, participation of everybody,” Pate said Friday.

Comments: CMcCullough@qctimes.com

Sarah Watson of the Quad-City Times contributed to this report.