Some Iowa races remain tight. How election results will be certified

Republicans mounted another strong showing with voters in Iowa, but the results from last week’s general election remain unofficial for now — and a few races remain tight and could be headed to recounts.

County officials across the state will meet this week to publicly canvass and certify the results of the Nov. 5 election. Here’s a look at what happens next and how Iowa will certify the election results.

Counties to canvass, certify results

County officials will canvass local election results from each precinct either today or Wednesday.

Absentee ballot and special voters precinct boards for each county already will have met to review challenged ballots, as well as write-in votes and ballots that were unreadable by machine tabulators. The boards are made up of Iowa poll workers chosen by local county auditors.

More than 200 Iowans’ ballots were challenged in the state’s most populous counties during last week’s election, the result of an order from Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate in his effort to prevent voting by non-U. S. citizens. Challenged voters have until today to provide county auditors with documentation that proves U.S. citizenship.

Iowa law requires county boards of supervisors to meet on the first Monday or Tuesday after the election to certify the county's results. Because Monday was Veterans Day, a public holiday, county supervisors must meet either today or Wednesday.

In Linn County, the supervisors will meet at 10 a.m. Wednesday to approve the results. In Johnson County, the supervisors will meet at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday to canvass the vote.

A canvass is an official tally of votes for an election. The supervisors will correct any obvious clerical errors and vote to certify a summary report prepared by the county election commissioner. The report will include the results of the election by precinct for each contest and public measure that appeared on the ballot.

County officials must send their canvass results to the Iowa Secretary of State's office by this Monday, or 13 days after the election, according to Iowa Code. It’s also the deadline for candidates to request a recount.

Recounts

Under Iowa law, a candidate can request a recount up to three days after the county board’s canvass of the election. For counties that canvass their results today, the deadline is 5 p.m. Friday. For counties that canvass their results Wednesday, the deadline is 5 p.m. Monday, since the third day following the canvass is a Saturday.

Any candidate whose name is printed on the ballot, or who receives write-in votes so long as they’re legally qualified to seek and hold the office for which they received votes, is allowed to request a recount.

If the margin of victory separating candidates is 50 votes or 1 percent or less of the total number of votes cast, whichever is greater, the state covers the cost of the recount. In all other instances, the candidate is responsible for costs associated with the recount. Costs paid by the candidate are refunded if the recount changes the election outcome.

Each county then designates a recount board made up of three members: one chosen by the apparent winner, one by the candidate requesting the recount and a third person agreed upon by both. If they cannot agree on a third person, the chief judge of the judicial district will appoint one.

Boards may recount only ballots considered by county canvass boards, even if made aware of legally cast ballots excluded from the initial count.

All ballots should be kept in view of the recount board and observers, and ballots should be guarded. The county auditor or a designee is responsible for security and handling of the ballots. If voting equipment was used on Election Day, the board may request ballots be recounted by voting equipment, by hand or both.

Recounts must be completed no later than 18 days after the canvass.

Several races for the Iowa Legislature and Southeast Iowa’s 1st Congressional District currently are separated by no more than 1 percentage point. Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks currently leads Democrat Christina Bohannan by about 800 votes out of more than 413,000 votes — or about .19 percent of the total votes cast in the race.

Miller-Meeks has declared victory, but said last week she expected a recount. Bohannan has not conceded, saying the race was too close to call. Her campaign was awaiting the results of the canvass of votes by counties in the congressional district.

The Associated Press had not yet called the race as of Monday afternoon.

Audits

In addition, the Iowa Secretary of State conducts a postelection audit. In each of Iowa’s 99 counties, a precinct is selected at random to conduct a hand count audit of two races. The hand count is matched against the machine tabulator total. In 2022 and 2023, hand counts and machine totals matched every time in the state.

The audits are conducted by a bipartisan team and are open to the public. Representatives from the Republican and Democratic parties are invited to observe.

A county auditor also can issue an administrative recount due to tabulation errors and malfunctioning voting equipment.

State certifies results

Once the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office receives canvass results from all of Iowa's counties, state officials meet to canvass and declare results for state and federal offices.

The Executive Council of Iowa, comprised of the governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, secretary of agriculture and state auditor, serve as the state board of canvassers. Iowa law states the top officials convene no later than 27 days after the election to review and approve certified votes in each county. That deadline this year is Dec. 2.

The state canvass is the final step in affirming the outcome of every race on the ballot, with the exception of president and vice president.

Governor must certify Iowa's electors

Electors will meet Dec. 17 in all 50 states to cast their state's electoral votes for president and vice president. Six days before that, each state's governor must submit a "certificate of ascertainment" to the archivist of the United States containing the names of their state's electors.

Iowa has six electors — equal to the number of senators and representatives the state has in Congress. The six electors will meet at the Iowa Capitol in Des Moines to cast their votes for Donald Trump for president and JD Vance for vice president. Electors are selected by members of their party at state party conventions.

The winner of Iowa's popular vote gets all six of the state's electoral votes. All states, except for Maine and Nebraska, have a winner-take-all policy.

Congress meets to certify presidential results

Congress will convene Jan. 6 in a joint session to count and certify the electoral votes cast in each state.

Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to preside over the joint session in her role as president of the Senate.

Trump and Vance will be sworn into office as president and vice president at noon Jan. 20 at the U.S. Capitol.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com