Johnson County Recalls Ballots in 2 Precincts
by Brian Sharp, Iowa City Press-Citizen

Johnson County has recalled 201 absentee ballots and scratched hundreds more after discovering Thursday that an Iowa Senate race was omitted in two precincts.

The omission of the District 40 race between Sen. Thomas Fiegen, D-Tipton, and Republican challenger Jim Hahn of Muscatine affects ballots for the Scott Township and West Branch Annex precincts.

There are a combined 1,272 registered voters between the precincts, of whom 14 already voted in person or by mail. Another 187 absentee ballots were sent out but have not been returned.

Slockett said an elections technician discovered the error while programming a ballot-reading machine. The discovery comes one day after Secretary of State Chet Culver halted absentee voting in Des Moines, Henry, Lee and Louisa counties where ballots omitted a judge's name.

(Click here to read the complete article.)


Ballot Repair Work Begins
by Matthew LeBlanc, The Hawk Eye

FORT MADISON — While elections officials in four southeast Iowa counties cope with a mistake that left a judge's name off 60,000 ballots, at least one county auditor has asked for extra help to ensure that voters are able to cast corrected ballots.

The Lee County Board of Supervisors approved the hiring Thursday of seven temporary elections workers who will help mail more than 4,200 supplemental ballots bearing Associate District Court Judge Gary Noneman's name to absentee voters who requested ballots last week. The judge's name was left off absentee and general election ballots sent to auditors in Des Moines, Henry, Louisa and Lee counties.

The workers, who will work for five days beginning Monday, will free up time for regular elections workers to concentrate on hiring poll workers and setting up polling places for the November election.

"We're just not getting anything else done other than absentee ballots," Lee County Auditor Anne Pedersen said. "We're having a hard time keeping up with (absentee ballot) requests that keep coming in."

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Woo-hoo!  That's good for our side!