Recounts begins: Four Iowa races head for a recount

County recount boards are recounting ballots for one seat in Congress and three in the state legislature. While recounts are unlikely to change the outcomes in most races, they have before. 

When races are close, Iowa Code gives candidates the ability to call for recounts, checking the math on their outcomes. As of this week, there are three state legislative races and one federal race in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District that will be recounted. 

There were over 414,000 ballots cast in Republican US Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ race against Democratic challenger Christina Bohannan. Despite this, Miller-Meeks only came out on top by 800 votes—less than 0.2%. 

This lead is much larger than Miller-Meeks’ 282-vote lead on on election night in 2020. That was the last time the results of Miller-Meeks’ race changed over the course of a recount. While the 800-vote lead may change over the course of the recount, Miller-Meeks is likely to remain ahead. Nonetheless, Bohannan has called for a recount of all 20 counties in the district. 

These recounts are run by election boards. They are three-member entities composed by one person from each campaign, as well as a third member the two mutually agree upon or have a court select. They have the ability to recount each precinct in the county using the vote counting machine used on election night or a hand recount. 

Iowa’s vote-counting machines are widely considered reliable and consistent in their count. Barring for tabulation mistakes, these machines will likely generate a similar outcome as their first count on election night. A hand recount could change the count as it gives the recount board the ability to assess voter intent from the ballot. But any ballots newly considered would likely include both Republican and Democratic ballots.

Iowa Code gives the recount board in Van Buren County three people to count its 3,500 votes. It gives the same number of people to count Scott County’s 87,000 voters. This incentivizes larger, more Democratic-leaning counties to use machine recounts, even when a hand count might offer additional ballots the machines do not tabulate correctly. 

In 2020, this led large counties like Johnson to do a “hybrid” count. Rather than count all precincts by hand, the recount board agreed to hand count some precincts while machine counting others. Back then, these hybrid approaches were controversial, with some saying they violated Iowa Code. 

The Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature had four years to clarify whether hybrid recounts were legal. It declined to do so. In that vacuum, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate issued guidance Tuesday saying hybrid recounts are not legal. 

“A county could conduct a hand count of every ballot, and/or run every ballot through the machine, but cannot do a combination of the two methods,” a spokesperson for Pate’s office said.

Two state Senate seats, one House seat to be recounted

Besides the federal race, there are three Iowa Legislature seats that will be recounted this year:

Senate District 14 – State Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott of West Des Moines, a Democrat, won reelection just 24 votes ahead of Republican challenger Mark Hanson of Waukee. Hanson has called for a recount. The district includes Waukee, Adel, Van Meter and the portions of West Des Moines and Clive in Dallas County. 

Senate District 20 – Republican challenger Mike Pike of Des Moines beat State Sen. Nate Boulton of Des Moines by 43 votes. Boulton has called for a recount. The district includes east Des Moines, Altoona, Pleasant Hill, and southwest Ankeny.

House District 98 – State Rep. Monica Kurth of Davenport, a Democrat, won reelection just 45 votes ahead of Republican challenger Nathan Ramker of Blue Grass. Ramker has called for a recount. The district includes parts of Davenport, Blue Grass and all of Buffalo.