Vote recount beginning in State Senate District 28

The process of recounting the votes cast in the race for State Senate District 28 is expected to begin on Monday.

Democratic candidate John Beard of Decorah—who trails Republican Michael Breitbach by 23 votes out of 30,000 votes cast—has requested recounts in Allamakee, Clayton, Fayette and Winneshiek Counties.

On Monday the Winneshiek County Board will vote on whether to order a recount.  A vote to proceed would set up a special recount committee, with one person representing Beard's campaign and a second person representing Breitbach's campaign.  Those two representatives would be asked to agree on a third member of the recount committee.  If the two can't agree on a third member, a district court judge will make the selection.

The three-member recount committee then will have until December 1st to complete the recount.  They will decide whether to do a hand recount or whether to run the ballots through a scanning machine.

The vote totals in Winneshiek County then would be added to the vote totals in the three other counties doing recounts to determine whether Breitbach or Beard won the election.  Recount committees can count only the ballots that have been canvassed and certified by county boards in the four counties—they cannot overrule the county boards' decisions about whether to accept or not accept ballots that might not have met voting standards.