Scott County recount finds 19-ballot discrepancy, down from 470

DAVENPORT — Iowa Democrats are saying the absentee-ballot discrepancy in Scott County now involves just a handful of ballots.

The Iowa Democratic Party, which had a representative in attendance at this week's recount, described a 19-ballot discrepancy after all the early ballots were rerun through the machines.

Republican House candidate Luana Stoltenberg, who is in a narrow race for a Davenport seat, confirmed that number.

A spokesperson for the Iowa Democratic Party said the auditor told representatives there were 23,376 physical absentee ballots, and the machine count reported 23,395 votes, indicating 19 were run through machines twice.

Previous counts indicated as many as 470 absentee ballots were not counted on election night.

Meanwhile, the recount in Scott County continues.

County Auditor Kerri Tompkins said in a news release Wednesday that the recount will continue with a hand count on Thursday at the Scott County Administrative building. The public is welcome to observe.

Tompkins said all absentee ballots cast in Scott County — more than 23,000 — will be counted by hand.

"We will continue the process to ensure every legal ballot is counted," Tompkins said in the news release.

The audit/recount of the absentee ballots, including early in-person and mail-in ballots, began at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

Tompkins said Tuesday she'd hoped to finish the recount and reconcile numbers in time for a Scott County supervisors meeting Wednesday, so supervisors could decide whether to accept any possible changes to election results. That meeting was postponed.

The initial recount was prompted by a 470-vote discrepancy discovered in early vote counts last week. Tompkins told supervisors Tuesday that while the office is unsure the reason for the discrepancy, it appears that a stack of ballots wasn't counted by the machines or were left out during a machine jam.

Two narrow local races could be affected by the recount — a Davenport Iowa House seat and county recorder.

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