Bill changing Iowa election recount process heads to governor’s desk

The Iowa Senate sent legislation to the governor Monday making changes to Iowa’s election recount process.

House File 928, passed 31-14, would change who can request a recount for an election in Iowa. In races for local offices and the Iowa Legislature, there would need to be difference of 1% or 50 votes between the candidates — whichever is less — for a candidate to request a recount. For statewide and federal races, the bill would require a 0.15% difference.

Election recount boards would change from their current make-up of a person designated by each candidate, alongside one other individual agreed upon by both candidates. The new system would have county auditors lead the board with their staff and hired election workers, with a requirement that boards must have equal numbers of workers from each political party. Candidates could also be able to choose up to five people to observe the recount in each county.

Sen. Ken Rozenboom, R-Oskaloosa, said these changes put Iowa’s recount process in line with other states, and addresses existing problems with potential conflicts of interest that exist in allowing campaigns to oversee the recount process.

“There’s no uniformity, no reliability or enforcement,” Rozenboom said. “That creates distrust the system.”

However, Sen. Cindy Winckler, D-Davenport, said the proposed changes to the recount system — allowing auditors to oversee election recounts — could create conflicts of interest if they are the incumbent party involved in an election recount. Rozenboom countered that county auditors would still be bound by the law to fairly administer recounts.

“I understand the nature of your question, but in the unlikely event that that happens, there’s still their responsibility to do that,” Rozenboom said. “And please note that there will be observers to watch that process.”

But Winckler said the current recount process serves Iowa well, without bringing up potential conflicts of interest posed by the county auditor — who is a partisan elected official — and their staff overseeing the process.

Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, said in the recount elections she has been involved in, “balance” in the process was not an issue as both candidates got to appoint a member of the recount board, and saying that candidates “come out with much greater respect for the process” for ensuring fair election results.

“What we will have if we shift through this new model is candidates feeling very suspicious, very uncertain and not knowing if they can trust what they’re hearing as part of this process — and not feeling represented in it,” Trone Garriott said. “Just because someone is a member of the same political party does not ensure that that person has that candidate’s best interest at heart, or is qualified to be the representative, or is qualified to be part of this process.”

Rozenboom argued that these criticisms do not acknowledge that partisan county auditors are already overseeing elections.

“If we trust them to conduct the election in the first place, it seems reasonable to me that we would trust them to conduct a recount,” Rozenboom said.

The bill would also implement an earlier deadline for requesting a recount, requiring requests be submitted by the end of the day of the second Wednesday after an election. The current deadline is the second Friday after an election. Recounts would be requested through the Secretary of State’s office for legislative, statewide and federal races, a change from the current system where campaigns make requests to each county auditor.

Another portion of the bill requires recounts to be conducted using vote tabulators, whereas current law allows hand-counting in some areas.

Rozenboom said the measure will bring “consistency, reliability, fairness, uniformity and enforcement” to the state’s election recounts.

“Election law is maybe the most important legislation that we can pass in this state, because election law, fair elections, are the absolute bedrock of our system of government,” Rozenboom said. “This legislation will correct flaws in our current system.”

The bill, approved by the House in late March, now goes to Gov. Kim Reynolds.