Hunter
11/15/22
The midterm election is a week old today, and the counting continues in Iowa.
Audits of the gubernatorial race and the gun rights initiative were already planned ahead of November 8th and will be randomly audited in a precinct from each of Iowa’s 99 counties.
However, one county’s discovered vote discrepancies could affect the outcome.
Scott County Auditor Keri Tompkins told the Quad City Times that they found a 470-ballot discrepancy between counts of absentee ballots. Two elections — for a statehouse seat and a county recorder — currently show narrow margins that could be impacted by the recount.
The Iowa Secretary of State’s office will send a letter of inquiry to the Scott County auditor about the issue there, and has been in touch with the Scott County Attorney and state Attorney General, They did the same thing in Linn County when it was discovered that the county auditor’s office erroneously left an election for a supervisor off the ballot in one precinct.
Candidates can request a recount once all the votes are canvassed this week, having three days from the official end of canvassing to do so. If the vote discrepancy is one percent or less, the county pays for the recount; if more, the candidate who requested the recount is responsible for the expense.
After Garrett Gobble lost by just 23 votes to Democratic challenger Heather Matson in the election for the Iowa House in Ankeny, he plans to request a recount. Nearly 14,000 votes were cast in that election.
And State Auditor candidate Todd Halbur stated earlier that he plans to ask for a recount after incumbent Rob Sand won by just under 2650 votes, a margin of .22 percent. Sand is the only Democrat who provisionally won an Iowa statewide election this season.