Floyd County urges state to solve absentee ballot issue

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County has joined other counties around the state in urging the Iowa Legislature to clarify rules regarding absentee voting, although the Board of Supervisors did not specify a preferred option.

The supervisors also set 9:15 a.m. Tuesday, March 12, as the public hearing date on the county budget for fiscal year 2019-20.

As reported in detail in Tuesday’s Press, the Floyd County board on Monday discussed the situation of a contested election in Winneshiek County that called into question the state law regarding when an absentee ballot must be received in order for the votes to be counted.

Under current Iowa law, any absentee ballot mailed by the day before election day is to be counted if received by noon on the Monday following the election. The date the ballot was mailed is to be determined by a clear postmark or a specific barcode that was printed on the return envelope.

The problem is that the Postal Service no longer consistently postmarks envelopes, and the Postal Service applies a barcode to some mail that can be used to determine when it entered the postal system, but that type of barcode is not included in the Iowa law.

At the regular board meeting Tuesday, the supervisors agreed to send a letter to Gov. Kim Reynolds with copies to legislative leaders that refers to the Winneshiek County situation and said it is the board’s position “that clarity and resolution on this topic during the legislative session should be a priority as to not repeat the same scenario in the future.”

The letter, written by County Auditor Gloria Carr, the election official for the county, identified three possible options that have been discussed:

• Require that all absentee ballots be received in the county auditor’s office by the end of election day in order to be counted.

“We recognize some undecided or late absentee voters may tend to wait until the last minute to return a ballot, but trust if a voter knew the deadline to receive a ballot in the auditor’s office is Election Day, the voter would return a ballot more timely,” the supervisors’ letter said.

Supervisor Roy Schwickerath said he was still uncomfortable with an option that would require ballots to be returned by election day, because some people want to study the candidates and issues as long as possible and things can change in the final days before an election.

He said he would prefer an option that gives voters a time period after the election for the ballots to arrive at the auditor’s office, as the current law allows, although he did vote to approve and sign the letter.

• Require counties to use what is called an IMB — intelligent mail barcode — to be applied to each ballot return envelope so the envelopes can be tracked to make sure they were mailed before election day.

This option “may be a more palatable option to voters because it allows more time to receive ballots under current Iowa Code, but does come as a cost to property taxpayers,” the supervisors’ letter says, estimating the cost at 2.5 cents or more per envelope.

“We presume if this is put in place it would come to the county as an unfunded legislative mandate,” the letter says.

• Amend the Iowa Code to allow the Postal Service-applied barcode to be used to determine if returned ballots were mailed before election day.

The supervisors’ letter noted that this would also cost the counties money, because the county would have to pay for a bipartisan team to take ballots to the Post Office to be scanned, or the county would need to purchase a $400 scanner to be able to scan the ballots.

The county letter urges the state to provide the scanner to counties if this option is chosen, “rather than an unfunded legislative mandate at the county level.”

“The gist of this letter is to encourage State officials to do something about this absentee postmark issue now. It is our desire for a bipartisan resolution to this issue so no voter, candidate, county auditor, party or legislator has to revisit this situation in the future,” the letter concludes.

“In resolving this issue, we ask the State to consider the overall financial burden brought to property taxpayers for federal, state and local election purposes or provide alternate state sources to fund this and other election costs.”

Also at the meeting Tuesday, the Supervisors:

• Appointed Marlowe Jung of Charles City to the Charles City Area Development Board to replace Angie Dietz of Nashua.
• Agreed to embargo River Road at the intersection of Quarry Road and 150th Street northwest to River Road and 130th Street, for a period of about three months starting when signs are posted and lasting until signs are removed. The embargo restricts traffic to a 5-ton per axle gross limit.