49.98  Counting ballots.
  The ballots shall be counted according to the voters’ marks on them as provided in sections 49.92 to 49.97, and not otherwise. If, for any reason, it is impossible to determine from a ballot, as marked, the choice of the voter for any office, the vote for that office shall not be counted. When there is a conflict between a straight party or organization vote for one political party or nonparty political organization and the vote cast by marking the voting target next to the name of a candidate for another political party or nonparty political organization on the ballot, the mark next to the name of the candidate shall be held to control, and the straight party or organization vote in that case shall not apply as to that office. A ballot shall be rejected if the voter used a mark to identify the voter’s ballot. For each voting system, the state commissioner shall, by rule adopted pursuant to chapter 17A, develop uniform definitions of what constitutes a vote.
[C97, §1120; S13, §1120; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §815; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §49.98]
97 Acts, ch 170, §52; 2004 Acts, ch 1083, §21, 37