We need answers

Scott County election snafu needs independent inquiry

Photo by Arnaud Jaegers on Unsplash

Five weeks after Election Day, the Scott County Board of Supervisors on Monday finally certified Republican Luana Stoltenberg the winner in the House District 81 race over Democrat Craig Cooper.

The final result: Stoltenberg by 11 votes, 5,073 to 5,062. The district covers northwest Davenport.

This race has been a roller coaster ride ever since Election Day, with a series of vote counts producing ever-changing results.

I’m sure that all the parties – and probably much of the public – would like to move on from the 2022 midterms, but we still don’t know why nearly 500 absentee votes didn’t get counted on Election Day, and we need to find out what happened.

First, some brief background about the topsy-turvy District 81 race.

On Election Day, the unofficial count declared Stoltenberg the winner by 29 votes.

Then there was an administrative recount by the auditor’s office, prompted by the discovery of those nearly 500 absentee ballots countywide that didn’t get counted. That count said Cooper won by six votes.

Then, a three-person recount board — requested by Stoltenberg — found an entirely different result, declaring her the winner, this time by 11 votes.

Even then, there was a hiccup. The recount board’s hand count differed from the number it got when ballots were fed through the voting machines, according to the Quad-City Times.

There was no explanation for the discrepancy, but the three-person recount board unanimously chose to go with their hand recount.

To his credit, Cooper has accepted the result. That’s as it should be. Iowa has a process to deal with close elections, and absent any evidence that should prompt an appeal to the courts, the process should be respected.

Still, nobody should close the book on this matter. According to the Times account, two members of the recount board — former Scott County Attorney Bill Davis and ex-Scott County Supervisor Jim Hancock, both Democrats — believe there should be an independent investigation of the initial counting of absentee ballots.

Davis was Cooper’s selection for the recount board, while Hancock was the neutral party. Diane Holst, a former Republican member of the board, was Stoltenberg’s pick.

I agree with Davis and Hancock. An independent inquiry is warranted.

County Auditor Kerri Tompkins has not been able to explain why the nearly 500 absentee ballots weren’t included in the first tally on Election Day, and in a report to the Iowa Secretary of State’s office, she said it is not clear what happened.

Nobody should be satisfied with that answer, and the county board should act to try to find a better one.

I realize that mistakes happen in elections, and it’s true that most of the races weren’t materially affected by the missing absentee ballots. But the number of ballots was significant, and it’s clear the House District 81 race was affected.

Tompkins did say she got a letter from Secretary of State Paul Pate, a fellow Republican, asking a series of questions about the administrative recount. It’s good that there is some follow up there, but that shouldn’t absolve the county board from taking action.

The board represents the interests of everybody in this county, and the supervisors were the ones who appointed the auditor in the first place. (Tompkins was elected to a full term by the voters last month.) Public confidence will be undermined if Republican supervisors simply close the book on a flawed count that was overseen by the Republican auditor they appointed.

To be clear, there is no doubt who won the House District 81 election.

The legal process determined Stoltenberg is the winner, and that result ought to be accepted and respected. However, if supervisors simply move on without trying to determine what happened with those nearly 500 absentee ballots, it will only invite the kind of cynicism that already runs rampant with today’s elections, albeit too often for the wrong reason.

Turning a blind eye doesn’t do any favors to Tompkins, either.

Public confidence matters when it comes to administering elections and going the extra mile to determine what happened can only help build trust. An independent inquiry may be uncomfortable for some on the board, and it wouldn’t be easy on the auditor’s office, either. But it’s still the right thing to do.

Credit where it’s due

It’s not often that I defend U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst.

The Iowa Republican too often plays to her base rather than representing all Iowans; she didn’t stand up to Donald Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election; and, as I wrote about recently, she’s wrongly targeting the IRS and long-overdue congressional efforts to strengthen the agency so it can do basic things like answer the phone and catch wealthy tax cheats.

Still, she deserves praise for voting for the Respect for Marriage Act — and, what’s more — for defending her vote in the face of censure resolutions and condemnation by several county Republican parties in the state.

The Respect for Marriage Act, which President Biden signed into law at a White House ceremony on Tuesday, does a number of things, notably codifying federal protections for same-sex and interracial marriages. It also requires that states recognize marriages as long as they were valid in the state where they were performed.

The bill passed the House and Senate with bi-partisan support, including from Ernst. She was among a dozen Republicans to support the legislation in the Senate. Unfortunately, Sen. Chuck Grassley voted against it.

Since then, Ernst has been taking flak from some Republicans in the state.

The Iowa Starting Line reported that a half dozen GOP central committees voted to censure her.

Asked about these actions, Ernst said she stood by her vote, and she disputed the idea the law undermined religious liberties, which has been one of the concerns voiced by critics.

As I find myself saying too often in covering politics these days, I’m not a lawyer but I find it significant that one of the Biden administration’s most aggressive critics is siding with the White House on this one. I’ve also read some informed commentary by conservatives that pushes back against the idea that this law undermines religious freedoms.

These county party censures won’t amount to much. They’re simply a way for some Republicans in Iowa to register their disapproval. Still, for a state dominated by Republicans, this isn’t something that can be too easily dismissed. As such, for those of us who believe in equal rights, it’s important to recognize lawmakers who voted the right way, and Ernst did that.

Along the Mississippi is a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please check out the work of my colleagues and consider subscribing to their work.

Laura Belin, Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen, Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Fern Kupfer and Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Kyle Munson: Kyle’s Main Street, Iowa

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices

Cheryl Tevis, Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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