The Dallas County absentee and special precinct board met in Adel Tuesday, Nov. 12 to count absentee and provisional ballots submitted in the 2024 general election. (Photo by Robin Opsahl/Iowa Capital Dispatch)
The Dallas County absentee and special precinct board met Tuesday to discuss ballots that will be counted in the tight Iowa Senate race between incumbent Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-Waukee, and Republican challenger Mark Hanson.
According to updated unofficial results released at 1:07 p.m. after the conclusion of the board’s review, Trone Garriott was ahead by 24 votes — a slight increase from the 19 votes shown in earlier, unofficial results.
The results remain unofficial. There are still several steps left before the results are officially certified, including the canvassing process by the Dallas County Board of Supervisors, now set for Wednesday’s meeting.
Dallas County Auditor Julia Helm said Tuesday she is expecting candidates to ask for a recount in the election. Iowa allows candidates to request a recount no more than three days after a canvass. The recount would be performed by a board consisting of a representative from each campaign and one neutral member who is agreed to by both parties.
Boards met across the state Tuesday to review absentee and provisional ballots, one of the final steps before finalizing and certifying results from the 2024 election. The Dallas County board met quickly after the deadline – noon on Tuesday – passed for Iowans who cast provisional ballots or had their credentials challenged to return to their local county auditor’s office with additional proof of their identity and citizenship.
The board then reviewed the ballots and the additional evidence provided to decide whether they were eligible voters and whether their votes would be counted.
Among the votes being counted Tuesday were ballots cast by overseas and military voters through the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, by people who did not bring the necessary identification to their polling place on Election Day and did not have an attester, and by people who did not sign their ballot.
Additionally, 25 of the ballots reviewed by the board were from voters who had their credentials challenged on the basis of U.S. citizenship. Of those 25, six were rejected and 19 were accepted.
In October, Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate issued guidance to county auditors in challenging more than 2,000 ballots if the individuals participated in the 2024 general election. The individuals had registered to vote after indicating to the Iowa Department of Transportation or another government entity that they were noncitizens at some point in the past 12 years.
Voting in an Iowa election as a noncitizen is a felony offense. However, immigration and voting rights advocates say a majority of those challenged are understood to be naturalized citizens who have the right to vote.
In a district court case from the ACLU challenging Pate’s guidance, federal officials said 250 people on the Secretary of State’s list were noncitizens. The guidance calling for local elections officials to challenge the listed individuals’ ballots was allowed to stand, in part because of the federal government confirmed there were noncitizens who appeared on Pate’s list.
Helm said that in Dallas County, voters on the list were sent letters or called to notify them of the issue and were informed they’d need to bring additional proof of U.S. citizenship to their polling site. However, she said there have been changes to the secretary of state’s guidance throughout the process.
In a public letter released Tuesday, Helm wrote that the Dallas County Auditor’s Office “has complied, in food faith, with both the directives of the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office and the Iowa Code.”
“Unfortunately, the guidance from the Secretary of State’s Office has changed throughout this process,” Helm wrote in the letter. “On November 12, 2024, the Auditor’s Office received new guidance regarding the review of affidavit envelopes (and) they were made immediately available to the public.”
The Secretary of State’s Office said in a statement that the process was complicated by the lack of cooperation from the federal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in sharing the citizenship status of listed individuals.
“Our guidance to county auditors was to follow the established challenge process – which is outlined in Iowa Code 49.79,” the statement said. “In fact, the first reason listed in the code for why a voter may be challenged is citizenship. This process includes the potential for a challenge at the polling place to be withdrawn if the individual can provide evidence of whatever is being challenged (identity, residency, in this case, citizenship), and the individual can cast the ballot as normal. Again, this is all established in the existing challenge process.”