HOUSE FILE _____

BY  (PROPOSED COMMITTEE ON STATE GOVERNMENT BILL BY CHAIRPERSON COWNIE)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to election recounts.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

   Section 1.  Section 50.48, subsection 4, paragraphs a and c, Code 2011, are amended to read as follows:
   a.  When all members of the recount board have been selected, the board shall undertake and complete the required recount as expeditiously as reasonably possible. The commissioner or the commissioner’s designee shall supervise the handling of ballots to ensure that the ballots are protected from alteration or damage.  The members of the recount board are the only persons authorized to physically touch the ballots during the recount. The board members shall open only the sealed ballot containers from the precincts specified to be recounted in the request or by the recount board. The board members shall recount only the ballots which were voted and counted for the office in question, including any disputed ballots returned as required in section 50.5. If automatic tabulating equipment was used to count the ballots, the commissioner or the commissioner’s designee shall supervise the recount board may request the commissioner to retabulate retabulation of the ballots by the recount board members using the automatic tabulating equipment. The same program used for tabulating the votes on election day shall be used at the recount unless the program is believed or known to be flawed.
   c.  The ballots shall be resealed by the recount board members before adjournment and shall be preserved as required by section 50.12. At the conclusion of the recount, the recount board shall make and file with the commissioner a written report of its findings, which shall be signed by at least two members of the recount board. The recount board shall complete the recount and file its report not later than the eighteenth day following the county board’s canvass of the election in question.
EXPLANATION
   This bill provides that the members of a recount board are the only persons authorized to physically touch the ballots during a recount. The bill applies to recounts for public office or nomination to public office and, by operation of law, public measures.